UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
3 1822 02663 4394
I'M
<;*«? "'* t«
InN* '
H
\^ o
SHIP'S LIBRARY.
U.S. S. MINNESOTA.
r
LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
SAN DIEGO
J
V.I
STANFORD'S COMPENDIUM
OF
GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
(NEW ISSUE)
.SIAITE (IF BiiLIVAi; : CARACAS.
STANFOED'S
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
(NEW ISSUE)
CENTRAL
AND
SOUTH AMERICA
VOL. I
A. H. KEANE, F.R.G.S.
AUTHOR OF 'Asia' and 'AFRICA' IN SAME SERIES; 'EASTERN GEOORAPHY '
'the BOER states'; 'ethnology'; 'man past and present';
ETC., ETC.
EDITED BY
Sir CLEMENTS MARKHAM, K.C.B., F.R.S.
president OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL AND HAKLUYT SOCIETIES
MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD
12, 13, & 14 LONG ACRE, W.C.
1901
PREFACE
In the new issue of this series the single volume origin-
ally devoted to Central America, the West Indies, and
South America is replaced by two, each somewhat larger
than their predecessor. The very ample additional space
thus secured has been found no more than sufficient to
embody the more important results of the numerous
scientific expeditions made to almost every part of Latin
America during the last two decades by Whymper, Con-
way, Fitzgerald, Crevaux, Thouar, im Thurn, Eodway,
Ehrenreich, von den Steinen, Eeiss, Church, Stlibel, Ball,
Brigham, Hill, Eomero, Thompson, Seler, and many other
distinguished geographers, archseologists, naturalists, and
anthropologists. Many of the discoveries were of a
fundamental character, profoundly modifying the views
liitherto prevailing on such questions as the tectonic
constitution, both of Central and South America, the
West Indian orographic systems, the distribution of
plants and animals over the whole area, the cradle and
primitive migrations of Caribs and Arawaks ; the
ethnical relations of Toltecs, Aztecs, and Mayas, of
Vlll COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
Quichuas (Peruvians) and Aymaras (Bolivians), the
origin of the marvellous Tiahuanaco monuments, and of
other remains of native American culture. Attention
has also been claimed by the recent political changes in
the West Indies, by frontier questions, as between British
Guiana and Venezuela, and between Chili and Argentina,
by inter-oceanic ship-canal projects, by transcontinental
railway schemes, and by the altered economic conditions,
especially in Mexico, Chili, Brazil, and Argentina. All
these transformations called for adequate treatment, if
only to show that in the New World, material and moral
progress is no longer confined to " Anglo-Saxon America,"
and that henceforth the Hispano-Lusitanian common-
wealths enter into the comity of the other cultured
nations on a footing of absolute equality and independ-
ence.
In distributing the subject matter over these two
volumes, it has been found convenient to deviate somewhat
from the usual arrangement. Thus the European colonies
in South America — British, Dutch, and French Guiana —
have been transferred to the volume on Central America
and the West Indies, with which they have always been
popularly associated as well as intimately connected in
their history, traditions, commercial and ethnical relations.
The arrangement has the further advantage of giving a
distinct unity to the present volume, to which is reserved
the whole of the South American continent, so far as it
PREFACE ■ IX
forms a political domain complete in itself, and inde-
pendent of all Foreign Powers.
The publisher is indebted to Dr. F. P. Moreno for the
use of some of his excellent photographs of Argentina
and Patagonia ; to Sir Martin Conway for the illustra-
tions of lUimani ; to Mr. F. A. A. Simons for those in the
chapters on Colombia ; and to Mr. Pilditch of the Puerto
Cabello and Valencia Eailway Company for those relating
to Venezuela. Mr. Whymper has kindly consented to
the reproduction of the view of Chimborazo and Coto-
paxi from his Travels amongst the Great Abides of the
Equator, and the view of Aconcagua is taken by per-
mission from Mr, Fitzgerald's The Highest Andes.
The photographs of Kio de Janeiro are from Messrs.
Spooiier's Series, and a number of other coast towns have
been illustrated from photographs by Mr. Boote of Buenos
Ayres.
A. H. KEANE.
Odoler, 1900.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
General Survey — Physical and Biological Relations
North and South America : Analogies and Contrasts
North and South America : Physical and Climatic Contrasts
Seaboards — Fjords — Islands
Climate of South America .
Relief of the Land— The Inland Seas
Central Plains— The Great Fluvial Basins
Orography — The Andes
The Brazilian Uplands
Subsidence and Upheaval .
Flora
Fauna
The South American Neogaic Realm
PAGE
1
3
6
8
10
12
l:>
18
19
20
25
26
CHAPTER n
Early Ethical Relations
Inhabitants of South America ....
Primitive Man in South America of two Types
Physical Characters of the Aborigines
Their Polysynthetic Speech .....
Number and Distribution of the South American Languages
The Lingoa Geral ......
South American Stock Races and Languages
General Culture— Contrast between North and South
Iso-cultural Zones ...-••
The Cultureless Zone .....
The Civilised Zone ...•■.
30
31
3.3
34
35
36
38
42
43
45
48
xu
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TKAVEL
CHAPTER III
Later Ethnical and Historic Relations
The Discovery — Exploration of the Seaboard
Indian Expeditions — Early "N'oyages on the Amazons
Relations of the Wliites to the Aborigines
Miscegenation ....
Settlement of Brazil
The Negro Element
Mestizo Terminology
Spanish and Portuguese Colonial Administration
The Revolt .....
The Brazilian Empire and Republic
The Spanish South American States
CHAPTEK IV
Vexezdela
Extent — Boundaries — Disputed Frontiers
Physical Features — General Relief
Northern Uplands — Sierra de ]\Ierida — Coast Range
Cordillera de la Silla — The Southern Uplands : Sierras
and Pacaraima
Earthqxiakes — Igneous Phenomena
The Venezuelan Llanos
Scenery of the Llanos
Hydrography — Lake Maracaibo
Lake of Valencia .
The Orinoco Basin .
The Delta . . . .
Orinoco Scenery
Gulf of Paria — Climate
Flora ....
Fauna ....
Inhabitants — The Aborigines
Europeans and Mestizos
Prospects of Immigrants — Historic Retrospect
TopograjDhy — Chief Towns
Government — Social Condition
Pa rim a
CONTENTS
Xlll
CHAPTER V
Colombia
Boundaries — Extent— Areas and Populations
Physical Features — The Colombian Andes — Tlie Eastern Cordillci
The Central Cordillera
The Western Cordillera
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta — Hydrography — The Ma
dalena-Cauca Basin
The Magdalena ....
The Cauca .....
The Sinu, Atrato, San Juan, and Patia Rivers
Lacustrine Basins : Lakes Fuquene and Guatavita
Climate ....
Flora ....
Fauna ....
Inhabitants
The Cultured Peoples— The Chibchas
Primitive Mining Process .
The Wild Tribes— The Goajiros .
Topography
Chief Towns of Colombia .
The Discovery — Conquest and Settlement
Colonial Administration
The Revolution— Present Regime
Religion — Education — Natural Resources — Mineral Wealth
PAOE
113
116
118
120
121
122
125
126
128
129
131
133
134
135
137
138
140
141
149
150
151
152
CHAPTER VI
Ecuador
Extent — Boundaries — Areas and Populations
Relief of the Land — The Eastern Cordillera and Pacitic Coast
Range .
The Avenue of Volcanoes .
Chimborazo .
Tunguragua — Altar
Cotopaxi
Hydrography — The Rios Guayas and Esmeraldas
The Rio Pastasa .....
154
157
159
161
162
163
165
166
XIV
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRArHY AND TRAVEL
PAGE
The Rio Na]») ....... 167
Climate ....
168
Flora ....
170
Fauna ....
171
Inhabitants — The Quitus and Cara.s
173
The Jivaros
176
The Zaparos — The Piojes .
177
History — Colonial Rule
178
The Republic
179
Topogra])hy
180
Resources — Land Tenure .
182
Administration
183
The Galapagos Islands
184
CHAPTER YII
Peru
Extent — Area — Population
Physical Features : Plateaux and Cordilleras
The Negra and Blanca Ranges
The Cerro de Pasco and Carabaya Range .
The Volcanic Zone : Misti — Omate^Tutupaca
Underground Agencies — Thermal AVaters — Varied Scenery
Local Terminology
Hydrography — The Amazon System
The Marauon and Putumayo
The Ucayali System
The Huallaga and Javari — Pacific Drainage
Lacustrine Basins — Lake Titicaca
Climate
Flora
Fauna
Inhabitants — The Cultured Peoples — The Yuncas
The Aymaras
The Quicliuas — Empire of the Incas
The Uncultured Peoples — The Antis — The Chunchos
Topography — Railway Enterprise
Natural Resources — Vegetable Products — Guano — Minerals
Causes and Results of the Chilian "War — The Peruvian Corporatioi
Administration ......
186
188
189
190
191
192
195
197
198
200
201
202
204
205
206
208
210
214
216
227
230
231
CONTENTS
XV
CHAPTER VIII
Bolivia
PAGE
Boundaries — Extent — Population ..... 233
Physical Features — The Coast Range and the Cordillera Real . 236
The Cordillera de Cochabaniba and the Eastern Sierras . . 240
The Yungas Zone ....... 241
Hydrography — The Titicaca Closed Lacustrine Basin . . 242
The Madre de Dies and Beni Rivers .... 244
The Rio Grande and Mamore ..... 245
The Mojos Lacustrine Depression ..... 247
The Pilcomavd ....... 248
Climate ........ 249
Flora ........ 251
Fauna ........ 253
Inhabitants— The Mojos ...... 254
The Chiquitos ....... 256
The Chiriguanos ....... 257
The Bolivians — Historic Retrospect .... 258
Topography — Railway Projects ..... 259
Resources — Minerals — Vegetable Products . . . 265
Communications ....... 266
Administration . . . . .267
CHAPTER IX
Chili
Extent — Boundary Questions — Area — Population
Physical Features — The Central Plain
The Western Cordillera
The Cordillera de los Andes
Mercedario — Aconcagua — Tupungato
The Southern Andes — Igneous and Glacial Phenomena
The Chilian Archipelagoes
Magellan Strait — Tierra del Fuego
King Charles South Land .
Mas a Fuera — Juan Fernandez
Hydrography — The Chilian Coast Streams
h
269
273
274
276
278
283
285
287
290
293
294
COMPENDIUM OF GP^OGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
Lakes ......
Climate . .
Flora ......
Fauna ......
Inhabitants — The Araucanians
The Fuegians — Yaligans and Alacalufs
The Chilians .....
Topography — Railway Enterprise .
Natural Resources — Agricultural and ]\Iineral Wealth
Land Tenure — Emigration
Administration .....
PAGE
296
297
••300
302
304
•■'.07
310
311
323
325
326
CHAPTERS X AND XI
Argentina
Boundaries — Areas — Populations .
European Lnniigrants
Physical Features — General Survey
The Argentine and Patagonian Cordilleras
The Cordoba, A''entana, and Tandil Heights
Argentine Fuegia, and Staten Island
The Pampas ....
The Patagonian Plateau
Hydrogi'aphy — The Parana- Uruguay Basin and Delta
The Rios Bermejo and Salado
The Rio Uulce and the Cordoba Affluents
The Lower Parana and the Plate Estuary
The Upper and Lower Colorado Basins
The Patagonian Rivers and Lacustrine Basins
The Magellanic Lakes
Climate .....
Flora .....
Scenery of Gran Chaco
Fauna ....
Inhabitants — Prehistoric Peo]>les .
The Pampas Indians and Guarani of the Missions
The Calchaquis and Gran Chaco Indians .
The Tobas and Matacos
The Gauchos ....
The Patagonians ....
The Argentines and Italians
328
331
332
333
337
338
339
341
344
347
348
349
351
352
358
360
363
367
368
374
376
378
379
381
384
CONTENTS
Topograph}^
Historic Retrospect
Material Progress — Railway Enterprise
Agriculture and Stock-breeding .
Government — Political Situation .
Religion — Education — Defences .
CHAPTER XII
Uruguay
Extent — Area — Population
Physical Features — The Cuchillas
Hydrography — Tlie Uruguay River
Climate ....
Flora ....
Fauna
Inhabitants — The Charruas
The Gauchos and Uruguayans
Topography — Historic Retrosjject .
Railway Enterprise
Resources — The Meat Industries .
Government — Education — Finance
CHAPTER XIIT
Paraguay
Boundaries — Extent — Population .
Physical Features .....
Hydrography — The Paraguay River and its Affluents
The Upper and Middle Parana Basin
Climate ....
Flora and Vegetable Resources
Fauna ....
Stock-Breeding
Inhabitants — The Payaguas
The Guarani and the Missions
The Paraguayans .
Topography
Historic Retrospect — Administration
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
CHAPTERS XIV AND XV
Brazil
Extent — Frontier Questions — Area — Population .
Ethnical Elements of the Pojiulation and their Distribution
Physical Features — Seaboard — Headlands and Islands
Orography — The Serra do Mar
The Serra do Espinhaco
The Western Serras, Plateaux, and Campos
Geological Formations
The Brazilian Lowlands and Woodlands .
Hydrography — The Amazon — Estuary- — Lateral Channels and
Islands ....
The Amazonian Affluents .
The Jurua, Purus, and Madeira .
The Tapajos, Xingu, and Tocantins
The Rio Negro and other Northern Affluents
The S. Francisco and other Coast Streams
Climate .....
Flora . . ■ .
Fauna .....
Inhabitants — The Aborigines
The Tapuya, Tupi-Guarani, Carib, and Arawak Families
The Brazilian Negroes
The Europeans ....
Topography ....
Natural Resources — Mining Industry
Agricultural Prospects — Coffee Culture
Stock-breeding — Forest Produce .
Railway Enterprise — ^Trade
Government — Education — Finance — Armaments
PAGE
486
489
493
496
498
500
504
507
513
517
518
521
524
526
531
537
541
552
554
561
564
565
584
585
587
588
589
CHAPTER XVI
The Falkland Islands and South Gkorgia
593
LIST OF MAPS
1.
Political ilap of South America .
To face
'pciyc 1
2.
Map
of Prehistoric Inland Seas, etc.
16
3.
Ethnological Map of South America
42
4.
Map
of Venezuela
112
5.
Colombia .
152
6.
Ecuador
184
7.
Peru
232
8.
,,
Bolivia
268
9.
,,
Northern Chile
326
10.
,,
Southern Chile and Patagonia
372
11.
,,
Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay
418
12.
,,
the Harbour of Rio Janeiro
578
13.
Brazil
592
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
1.
Statue of Bolivar : Caracas
F,
ontispieee
2.
Chincliona ...
23
3.
Tajiir ......
24
4.
Rhea ......
25
5.
Ai-madillo .....
28
6.
Tlie First House erected on the Spanish Main, still
existing
at Cartagena ....
53
7.
Mestizos of Qnindio ....
65
8.
Anaconda ...
97
9.
Arawaks .....
99
10.
Caracas . . .
105
11.
La Guaira .....
107
12.
Bodyguard of the President of \'ene/;uela
110
1-3.
The Capitol, Caracas ....
112
14.
Stern-wheel Steamer on the Kio ^lagdalena .
123
15.
Toucan ......
1-33
16.
Muyscas
136
17.
Goajiros
139
18.
Bogota .....
142
19.
Main Street of Bogota — Ladies wearing ^Mantillas
143
20.
Main Road, Honda to Bogota
144
21.
Gateway of Cartagena
146
22.
Santa Marta ......
148
2.3.
Summit of Chimborazo
160
24.
Interior of the Crater of Cotojjaxi
164
2.")
Coconuco Lidian of Cotocaehi, Ecuador
173
26.
Water-carriers of Quito, Ecuador
175
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PACiE
27. Guayaquil . . . . . . .181
28. The Great Doorway, Tiahuanaco
209
29. Inca Indian ....
213
30. A Chuncho from tlie Montana
215
31. Lima .....
219
32. Callao Harbour
221
33. Bridge on the Oroya Railway
223
34. Arica .....
226
35. Illimani ....
238
36. Gorge near the Cuzanaco Mine, Illimani
239
37. Lake Titicaca ....
243
38. Capybara ....
253
39. La Paz de Ayacucho .
261
40. Aconcagua ....
280
41. Mount Tronador
283
42. Glacier Bay, Strait.s of Magellan
288
43. Guanaco ....
303
44. Yahgan ....
308
45. Iquique ....
313
46. Coquimbo ...
314
47. Valparaiso ....
316
48. The Museum, Santiago .
318
49. Coronel ....
321
50. Aconcagua : Pa.so de Los Contrabandista.s
335
51. Rio Santa Cruz
345
52. Lake Nahuelhuapi
354
53. Ancient Eastern Outlet of Lake San Martin
356
54. Lake Argentino . .
357
55. The Cordillon of the Andes at Last Hope Inlet
359
56. The Incas' Bridge on the Mendoza-Santiago Road
375
57. Gaucho ......
382
58. Tehuelche ....
385
59. Rosario ....
394
60. Avenida S. Martin, Mendoza .
399
61. Summit of the Usjiallata Pass (La Cumbre)
401
62. Cathedral of Cordoba
403
63. Mayo Avenue, Buenos Ayres
407
64. Municipal Buildings, La Plata
409
XXll
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
65. Museo de la Plata
411
66. Monte Video .
4.32
67. Colonia
434
68. Victoria Falls of the I-Guazu
460
69. Paraguay Tea
464
70. Palace of Lopez, Asuncion
479
71. Yellow-Tailed Howler and Yc
img .
542
72. Marmosets
544
73. Coati . .
546
74. The Paca
547
75. The Great Ant-Eater
548
76. Kayapo
554
77. Apiaca
555
78. Bakairi
556
79. Xaliuqua
5o/
SO. Bororo of Central Brazil
560
81. Street in Pernambuco
571
82. Street in Bahia
573
83. Rio de Janeiro
576
84. Rio Harbour
578
.li
POLITICAL ^MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA
ERRATUM.
The boundary between the Republic of Chili and the
Argentine Republic south of latitude 26° 52' 45" has
been referred for arbitration to the British Government.
The boundary line shown on the maps at pages
372 and 418 follows the Chilian claim ; the Argentine
claim has been accidentally omitted.
SOUTH AMERICA
CHAPTER I
GENERAL SUEVEY PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL RELATIONS
North and South America : Analogies and Contrasts — Physical and
Climatic Contrasts — Seaboard — Fjords — Islands — Climate of South
America — Relief of the Land — The Inland Seas — Central Plains— The
Great Fluvial Basins — Orography — The Andes — The Brazilian
Uplands — Subsidence and Upheaval — Flora — Fauna — The South
American Neogteic Realm.
North and South America : Analogies and Contrasts.
Between the " twin continents," as the northern and
southern sections of the New World have been called,
the transitions are everywhere so gradual that it is not
at first sight easy to say where one ends and the other
begins. But when the question is studied on a large-
scale map, we see at once that the true natural limits
are laid down, at the north-west extremity of the southern
section, by the Gulf of Darien (Oraba), which formerly
penetrated much farther inland than at present, if it did
not even present a free waterway between the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans. The course of such a channel, which
many engineers believe might be easily restored by the
VOL. I B
2 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
construction of an international ship-canal offering far
greater facilities than any of the alternative schemes
hitherto proposed, is clearly indicated by the trend of the
Atrato and S. Juan river valleys.
The joint fluvial axis of these streams, which are
separated only by a low water-parting considerably nearer
to the western than to the eastern ocean, runs from the
Caribbean Sea, where the Atrato debouches, nearly due
south to the mouth of the S. Juan below Bonaventura,
on the Pacitic coast of Colombia. While thus cutting
off the Andean system at this point from the Central
American Cordilleras, the two river valleys, which have
a total length of nearly 500 miles, constitute at the same
time the most natural parting-line between the two divi-
sions of the New World.
So obvious are the points of resemblance between
these divisions that they strike the eye at the first glance.
Both present the same rough triangular shape, with base
inclined from north-west to south-east, and sides of nearly
equal length converging to the apex southwards. In
superficial extent there is little difference, the northern
triangle scarcely exceeding the southern by one-eightli,
while a surprising parallelism is presented by the general
relief, the disposition of mountain ranges, tablelands, plains,
and fluvial basins. Thus to the Eocky ^fountains and
Central Sierras correspond the Andean Cordilleras, both
running close to the west coast, and ramifying at
intervals into two or even three branches, which enclose
vast plateaux often of great elevation. Indeed, the re-
semblances are here so striking, and extend to so many
secondary features, such as active and extinct volcanoes
with extensive lava-fields and other igneous matter over-
lying sedimentary formations, that the unity of the
orographic system from Fuegia to Alaska, first suggested
GENERAL SURVEY 6
by Humboldt, was long accepted by geographers without
demur.
On the Atlantic side the correspondence is maintained
by the Alleghanis in the north, and in the south by the
Sierra de Merida, the Sierra de Mar, and the Brazilian
highlands. In both regions the western and eastern
mountain systems enclose boundless central plains —
prairies, savannahs, llanos, pampas, woodlands — -which
are traversed in much the same directions by a few
fluvial arteries, rivalling or surpassing in volume, length,
and drainage area the great rivers of the eastern hemi-
sphere. With two important exceptions — Mackenzie and
Yukon — the oulfall is to the Atlantic, recipient also of so
many running waters on its eastern seaboard. Thus the
Churchill, St. Lawrence and Hudson trending east, and
the Missouri -Mississippi with a southerly course, find
their exact counterparts in the Orinoco and Amazon on
the one hand and the Parana-Paraguay on the other.
Physical and Climatic Contrasts
But these analogies, which lie somewhat on the
surface, are perhaps more than balanced by the contrasts,
which are in some respects of greater moment, and on
the whole more favourable to the north than to the south.
Foremost amongst these is the position in respect of the
poles and the equator. Here the discrepancy is enormous,
sufficient in fact to constitute the southern division
mainly a tropical, the nortliern mainly a temperate region.
To be sure, much of North America seems to lie within
the Arctic Circle, or near enough to be called Ai'ctic. But
the absolute area of this section, consisting so largely of
archipelagos with extensive intervening water-surfaces,
is less than is commonly supposed, and is amply compen-
4 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPtAVEL
sated by the bulging out and consequent great average
breadth of the continent in more favourable latitudes.
But the very opposite is the case in South America,
where the bulging takes place about the equator, with a
consequent excess of heat and moisture, and where, beyond
the Tropic of Capricorn, the land tapers so rapidly south-
wards that but a relatively small area is extra-tropical.
Hence only a fraction of the southern continent would be
suitable for European settlement were the tropical heats
not tempered by the great elevation of the Brazilian and
Andean uplands, and by the moderating influence of sea
breezes from the Atlantic. Owing to these favourable
conditions the general climate of South America is more
equable and cooler by several degrees than that of the
African continent. Thus the isothermal line of greatest
heat, which runs from the isthmus of Panama mainly
along the seaboard to Cape Sao Roque, intersecting the
equator at the Amazon estuary, ranges from about 80°
to 82° F., while the temperature of the corresponding
heat zone on the east side of the Atlantic normally
exceeds 86" F.
Other important consequences, also to the advantage
of the north, follow from this general latitudinal position
of the twin continents. During the glacial epochs,
whether simultaneous or not on either side of the equator,
a fairly warm temperature must have at all times pre-
vailed in inter-tropical South America, with the result
that the running waters suffered no serious arrest, but
continued their natural process of development without
interruption except in the sub-arctic lands of the extreme
south.
Hence on the Chilian coast and in Fuegia alone are
found those peculiar fjord-like formations which, as in
Scandinavia and Greenland, are due to the grinding action
GENERAL SURVEY 5
of glaciers or frozen streams. Elsewhere- the rivers have
excavated their beds down to their natural levels, and in
so doing have drained nearly all the old lacustrine basins
and effaced most of the falls and rapids which formerly
abounded in many districts. Cataracts still survive in
the Colombian and Peruvian Andes, on the Parana, the
Madeira and elsewhere ; but all the large lakes have dis-
appeared except Titicaca and the still periodically flooded
Mojos basin about the Amazon-Parana water-parting, at
the northern extremity of the old Pampean Sea.
Even Titicaca, though still an imposing sheet of water,
is little more than a highland loch compared to its vast
dimensions in Secondary and Tertiary times. " Geological
examinations show that Titicaca was once one of the large
lakes of the world, and that it has slowly been drying
up." -^
How different from all this the picture presented by
the northern continent, where glacial action attained a
greater development than in any other part of the world,
where the ice-cap, thousands of feet thick, advanced and
retreated more than once over vast areas millions of miles
in extent, and where icebergs in great numbers are still
annually discharged from the Greenland and Alaskan
glaciers. Hence the mighty streams held in their icy
fetters till far into the Pleistocene age have not since
had time to arrive at maturity. They still tumble over
some of the grandest falls on the globe, and have left
undrained the great lakes of the Laurentian basin and
many others strewn over the Canadian Dominion, while
the seaboard is so finely diversified with fjords, gulfs, bays,
and other inlets that it presents 26,000 miles of contour-
lines compared with the 19,000 miles of the somewhat
monotonous South American coastlands. Even this
1 Col. G. E. Church, Geogr. Jour. (Oct. 1898), p. 401.
6 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
might seem a liberal allowance until we find that Europe,
for instance, with little more than half the area, can show
a seaboard of no less than 16,000 miles, including all
the windings of the coasts.
Seaboard — Fjords — Islands
Practically the South American coasts, always ex-
cepting Chile, Patagonia, and Fuegia, have no windings
or inlets beyond the relatively insignificant Gulfs of
Darien and Venezuela in the north and Guayaquil on
the west, with the still smaller bays of Eio de Janeiro
and Bahia on the east side. The few other indentations
are not marine inlets, but great fluvial estuaries, which by
the deposits of silt are being slowly transformed to deltas
like that of the Orinoco, or else converted into alluvial
plains like that of the Eio Colorado. Formerly the lower
reaches of this Pampean stream presented the aspect of
a very large estuary running over 100 miles inland,
though still greatly inferior to those of the Plate and
Amazon, which are amongst the most typical and ex-
tensive of such formations in the world.
There is also a remarkable absence of islands or insular
groups, South America showing in this respect a close
analogy with the two other great Austral lands. As
South Africa has its Madagascar and Southern Australia
its Tasmania, so our continent terminates southwards in
Tierra del Fuego. The few insular groups in the Caribbean
Sea should either be grouped with the West Indian system
(Leeward Chain) or else regarded as almost still forming
part of the mainland (Trinidad, Tobago). In even closer
connection with the mainland are Chiloe, the Chonos
Archipelago, Wellington, and the other islands which fringe
the Chilian seaboard and merge south-eastwards in the
GENEPvAL SURVEY
Fiiegian group. In order to discover any other insular
formations that may fairly be regarded as geographical
dependencies of South America, the gaze must sweep the
eastern horizon to the British groups of the Falklands
and Georgia in the Austral seas, and farther north to
another Trinidad and Fernando Noronha, mere specks
lost in the Atlantic waters, but jealously guarded by the
Brazilian State.
Turning westwards, we shall with difficulty detect the
Malpelo and Cocos rocks claimed by Colombia, while
attention will be arrested by the relatively large Gala-
pagos cluster, which, being cut by the equator, belongs
politically to Ecuador, but, owing to the exceptional
interest of its fauna and flora, is the common property
of all naturalists. Still farther south the S. Feliz and
S. Ambrosio reefs lead along the same meridian (80° W.)
to the islets of Mas a Fuera and the neighbouring Juan
Fernandez, the latter for ever associated with De Foe's
immortal hero, friend of young and old alike. All
these groups, lying between 25°-35° S. lat., are Chilian
dependencies.
Subjoined are tabulated, for purposes of reference,
some of the leading physiographic points of the twin
continents : —
Superficial area
Extreme length
Coast-line
Greatest distance from centre
to coast
Culminating point .
Greatest river drainage area
North America.
. 7,100,000 sq. m.
4,600 miles
26,000 ,,
1,800 „
18,100 feet
(iMt. St. Elias)
. 1,767,000 sq. m.
(Mississippi-Missouri)
South America.
6,880,000 sq. m.
4,500 miles
19,000 ,,
1,700 ,,
23,080 feet
(Aconcagua)
2,722,000 sq. m.
(Amazon)
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TKAVEL
Climate of South America
It is often stated, and indeed assumed, that the climate
of the western is considerably colder than that of the
eastern hemisphere. But the assumption has to he taken
with great reserve. In fact it cannot be accepted as a
whole, and while perfectly true of North America, this
somewhat hasty generalisation breaks down completely
when applied to the southern division. The mean tem-
perature of insular regions, and physically as well as in
other respects America is an island, is largely determined
by the surrounding waters, more so perhaps than by the
general relief of the land wherever the altitude is not
excessive. Now South America is washed by two great
marine currents — the warm Atlantic stream on the east
side, and the cold Antarctic wave on the Pacific side — and
these are normally accompanied by corresponding aerial
currents. Under ordinary conditions such opposites
might be expected to neutralise each other, or estajjlish
a general equilibrium. But not so in this continent,
where the effects of the western cold winds and waters
are intercepted and confined to a narrow strip of coast-
lands by the Andes, pierced only in South Patagonia
by rivers and sounds, whereas on the east side the warm
marine and atmospheric currents have much freer scope,
thanks partly to the lower elevation of the Brazilian
uplands, and also to the great fluvial valleys, through
which, as through open gates, the tepid Atlantic breezes
find easy access to the very foot of the Cordilleras.
Thus it happens that a kind of diagonal climatic
relation is set up between the twin continents. To the
narrow Pacific seaboard of South America corresponds
the Ijroad Atlantic seaboard in the north, with this differ-
GENEKAL SUKVEY / 9
ence, that here it is the cold winds and waters that have
full and almost unimpeded play right across the central
regions to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Similarly,
the conditions on the South American Atlantic coastlands
are repeated on the North American Pacific coastlands,
where prevail the warm equatorial currents, and where
also their range is limited by the great elevation of the
Sierras and Rockies. Thus is explained the curious
phenomenon that the mean temperature of North America
is lower by perhaps 20° F., and that of South America
higher than, or at least equal to, that of the Afro-
European regions.
Why then, it may be asked, is Central Patagonia so
bleak and arid ? The answer is, partly because the high
latitude here tells, and also because here the cold Austral
winds sweep over the plains east of the Andes unimpeded
by any obstacle till they reach the Tandil and Ventana
heights between the Colorado basin and the Plate estuary.
Moreover, if very cold in winter, Patagonia is very hot
in summer, which may in some measure be explained on
the cosmic ground that in the southern hemisphere summer
occurs when the earth is nearest, and winter when it is
farthest, from the sun. But from this it is not to be in-
ferred that, as commonly supposed, the southern has as
a whole a lower mean temperature than the northern
hemisphere. On the contrary, there are good reasons for
believing, with the late Professor John Ball, " that the
southern hemisphere is not colder than the northern, and
that all arguments based upon an opposite assumption
must be set aside." ^
^ A^tes of a Naturalist in South America, p. 275.
10 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
Relief of the Land — The Inland Seas
No less simple than its contour- lines is the general
framework of the southern continent, wliich seems to
have undergone more than one transformation since
Secondary times. At first it may be conceived as an
archipelago, or at least a group of three or four slightly
connected huge masses much more elevated in the east
than in the west, and now represented chiefly by the
greatly denuded Brazilian highlands on the Atlantic, and
the, at that time, very much lower Andean chain on
the Pacific side, the latter prolonged eastwards by the
transverse Sierra de Merida with its eastern extension
facing the Caribbean Sea, the former prolonged westwards
by the Central Brazilian uplands. In the south the
Ventana and Tandil heights projected eastwards to the
Atlantic without cutting off the old Colorado basin from
the great inland sea, which probably flowed from the
northern foot of the Patagonian plateau continuously
northwards between the Andean and Brazilian uplands to
the southern slopes of the Sierra de Merida. This great
" Mediterranean," however, must have been contracted to
relatively narrow sounds or channels at three points — in
the south between the Andean and Ventana uplands,
farther north between the Central Brazilian and Bolivian
Cordilleras, and again between the Venezuelan and
Colombian highlands.
Then, as the Andean system gradually rose higher and
higher, while the Brazilian was lowered by subsidence
and a prodigious extent of denudation, the inland waters,
amid which the Ventana, Cordova, and other smaller
masses stood out like islands, broken into two or three
secondary basins by the closing of the narrows at the
GENEEAL SURVEY 11
points above indicated. The two northern seas would
appear to have been somewhat rapidly transformed —
partly by the abundant sedimentary deposits washed
down from the encircling hills, partly also perhaps by up-
heaval — to the fluvial valleys which now constitute the
Orinoco and Amazon systems.
But the southern basin, rediscovered, so to say, and
aptly named the Pampean Sea by Colonel Church,^
seems to have persisted longer. Under the twofold
specified influence this marine inlet became detached
first from its northern section, the scarcely yet obliter-
ated Lake Mojos, and was then in due course transformed
to the boundless diluvial and alluvial valley now
traversed in all directions by the ramifications of the
Parana-Paraguay river system.
Thus were slowly welded together the wholly or
partly detached masses of former ages, and, that such
may well have been the geological record of the continent
thus created, is made highly probable by its present
constitution, and especially by the extraordinary
simplicity of its hydrographic and orographic outlines.
How else explain, for instance, the still surviving inter-
communications of all these great river systems, inter-
laced not at their mouths, as we see in the common
Brahmaputra-Ganges delta, but in their upper reaches,
where the Orinoco is linked by the Cassiquiare with the
Amazon, and the Amazon with the Parana by an intricate
network of channels and backwaters flowing now one
way, now another. Here the slopes of the divide are so
gently inclined that a mere snag or a slight landslip
suffices to divert the currents from one basin to the
other. " Owing to their horizontality, all the plains
from the mouth of the Maniore to the Pilcomayo " (that
1 Geogr. Jour., October 1898.
12 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
is right across the main Amazon- Parana divide) "are
inundated from October to March, and present the
aspect of a great ocean studded with green islands.
Across the Monde Grande a simply overturned tree would
change the course of the waters." ^
Central Plains — The Great Fluvial Basins
From the Venezuelan llanos to the Argentine pampas,
and at one time even to the Patagonian tableland, the
bed of the postulated inland sea has thus been main-
tained for many ages nearly at the same dead level,
slightly upraised or filled in by detritus uniformly
deposited, without anywhere developing any decided
water-partings. The marine waters have merely been
displaced by a single vast fluvial basin, which during the
summer rains resumes in its upper reaches the aspect of
a great inland sea many thousand square miles in extent,
and discharges through three channels into the Atlantic
Ocean. So fine is the pampean mud that in many
extensive tracts not a rock or a rolled pebble is to be
seen. When a native of the Mojos valley, which is still
covered with this muddy silt, sets out on a journey to
the neighbouring uplands, he is asked to bring back a
stone or two that the people may see what such things
are like. In some districts the old " beached margent
of the sea" may be followed for many miles, as below
Eosario, where, " after the pampean beds were formed
and their southern and eastern margin began to emerge
from the waters, the ocean along the shallow coast rolled
up on the gently inclined plain quantities of shells, lianks
of which, miles in length, may be seen to-day far inland,
giving evidence, by their curvature and general appear-
^ Castelnau, quoted by Church, loc. cit. p. 389.
GENERAL SURVEY 13
ance, of having been piled up along an ancient coast-
line." ^ These shells belong to species still living in
the neighbouring Atlantic waters, and embedded in the
Pampean formation are also found widely distribiited
the fossil remains of the mastodon, megatherium,
mylodon, and other gigantic members of the Pleistocene
South-American fauna. Such huge beasts, with whom
early man himself was undoubtedly associated, found
ample sustenance in the rank vegetation that flourished
amid the swamps and shallows of the slowly subsiding
Pampean Sea. The human remains, presenting types
similar to those of the Botocudos and some other sur-
viving primitive races, are Ibund distributed over a -wide
area both in the marine basin and on its eastern and
western margins. The only liighway between these two
sections of the continent " must have crossed the elevated
region at the head of the Pampean Sea, lying between
17^ and 19° S. lat., wliich is still the only route in use
for communication by land between Bolivia and Matto
GrOsso " {ib.).
In the northern or Amazonian section of the old
inland sea the evidence of former marine action is quite
as strong as Church has found it iir the southern section.
Here are everywhere to be seen horizontal sandstone
and argillaceous beds ranging from 100 to 1000 feet in
height, and constituting a vast system of sedimentary
strata which can be traced from the foot of the Cordillera
to the Atlantic. Even as far inland as the Pebas terraces
of the Peruvian Maranon, Or ton noticed thick beds of
marine shells disposed in layers of diverse coloured clays,
in which were represented as many as seventeen extinct
species of late Tertiary times. AVhen those beds were
formed the Maranon, after forcing its way through the
1 Church, loc. cit. p. 396.
14 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Manseriche gorges, must have entered the marine basin
through an estuary, wliich may be conceived as slowly
moving eastwards according as the present Amazonian
plains were filled in. It has even been suggested that
in the Tertiary epoch the main stream flowed, not east
to the Atlantic, but through the Orinoco-Negro depression
towards the Caribbean Sea. In support of this view it
has been pointed out that the marine shells of the
Maranon cliffs resemble those of the West Indian waters.
If so " the bluffs of Monte Alegre, the Santarem heights,
and the other hills approaching the banks of the Amazon
at the Obidos narrows, should be regarded as the remains
of the ridge or dyke which formerly closed the basin of
the inland sea and of the lakes ascending in terraces up
the slopes of the Andes to Lake Titicaca." ■*
The southern (Pampean) section of the ancient
Mediterranean had a probable length of 1400 miles, w'ith
a mean breadth of over 400 miles, and an area (including
the Mojos section, 115,000) of about 715,000 square
miles. But the drainage area of the present Parana
basin is, of course, much greater, because it includes all
the surrounding slopes. It greatly exceeds a million
square miles, and the other interlaced fluvial systems
present the same magnificent proportions, as shown in
the subjoined table of the South American drainage
arcas,^ where the enormous difference between the
Atlantic and Pacific domains is specially noteworthy.
The ancient inland sea was, like the Eurafrican Mediter-
ranean, an inlet of the Atlantic; consequently the running
waters by which it has Ijeen replaced continue to dis-
charge into the same reservoir.
^ Reelus, vol. xix. p. 99.
- Prepared on fresh data by Dr. Alois Bliulau for Petermann's Mitt.,
ami reproduced in Geogr. Jour. (June 1897), p. 667.
GENEEAL SUllVEY
15
Atlantic Slope
Atrato .......
Magdalena-l'aiiea .....
Coast streams between Maf^clalena and Orinoco
Orinoco .......
Cojist streams, thence to Amazon
Amazon-Tocantins .....
Coast streams, thence to Parnahiba .
Parnaliiba ......
Coast streams, thence to Sao Francisco
Sao Francisco ......
Coast streams, thence to tlie Plate
Plate-Urnguay ......
Colorado-Negro .....
Coast streams, thence to Cape Froward
Total Atlantic
Pacific Slope
Colombian rivers ....
Ecuador ,,
Peruvian ,, ....
Chilian „ ....
Total Pacific
Inland Drainage
Lakes Titicaca and Aullagas
Landlocked basins, thence southwards
Total Inland
Su.mmauy
Atlantic ......
Pacific ......
Inland .....
Total area drainage of South America
Sq. Miles.
24,500
102,500
94,500
364,500
190,500
2,722,000
85,500
133,500
106,500
251,500
333,000
1,198,500
464,000
210,000
6,382,500
35,000
41,500
125,000
206,000
407,500
76,000
30,000
106.000
6,382,500
407,500
106,000
6,896,000
Orography -The Andes
The mountain ranges are laid down on the same
broad lines, and liere also, while the same symmetry and
16 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
simplicity are everywhere conspicuous, the presence of a
later Miocene marine basin seems suggested by the contrasts
and resemblances of the Andean and Brazilian systems.
In early Miocene times the Andes must have presented
the appearance of a low unbroken coast range, still,
however, elevated enough to form an effective barrier
between the Pacific and Atlantic basins. But throughout
the later Miocene and the Pliocene epochs they were
subjected to the same slow process of upheaval as the
Alpine and Himalayan systems in the Old World, with
the result that from Fuegia to the Atrato they constitute
on their outer (seaward) face one of the loftiest and
most regular mountain ranges on the globe.
A nearly due south -north trend is maintained for
about half its entire length, from the Strait of Magellan
to Arica in Peru, where it develops a great westward
curve round to the Gulf of Darien. But throughout
this northern section the same and even greater symmetry
is displayed, the rocky walls keeping closer to the sea
and at some points plunging sheer into the abysmal
depths. Thanks to this astonishing uniformity, Andes
(Antis), the native (Quichua) name of the Peruvian
section, has been naturally extended to the whole
system by the Spaniards, to whom the Pacific Coast
Eange as far as Fuegia is known as the Cordillera
de los Andes, or simply the Cordillera ^ in a pre-
eminent sense. Its mean altitude, estimated at about
14,000 feet, is so uniformly maintained that, seen
from the Pacific, the crest looks like a perfectly regular
bastion surmounted at intervals by sharp or rounded
pinnacles, representing either old crystalline rocks or
else extinct or still active craters. Even the geological
1 From Corda, a cord or rope, as if to indicate the precision with which
the crest has been drawn in a line with the coast.
-^ ^^'
A Map »l>.j«-;ni;
THE ANDEAN CILUX. TIIK l!lL\Zn,IA>- mGIIl.iVl«I)S
AND THE PREHISTORIC INLAND SEAS-
GENERAL SURVEY
17
Ibrmation is everywhere much the same, as shown, for
instance, by the specimens brought back by the Fitz-
Gerald expedition from Aconcagua and Tupungato in
the South and by Mr. Whymper from the equatorial
Andes in the North (Bonney). The peaks and cones
themselves, ranging from over 15,000 to 23,000 feet,
are distributed with singular even-handedness throughout
the whole system, from the Chilian Aconcagua, Queen
of the New Warld,^ to the Chimborazo of Ecuador, long
wrongly supposed to be the culminating point of both
Americas, but, as shown in the subjoined table, consider-
ably over-topped by several of the giants in the Cordillera
itself : —
Region.
Peak or Cone.
Height in Feet
Authority.
Bolivia
Sorata .
23,500 (?)
Conway.
Argentina .
Aconcagua
23,080
FitzGerald.
Bolivia
Illimani .
22,500
Conway.
Chile .
Tupungato
22,000
Gus.sfeldt.
Peru .
Huasean
22,000
Hiudle.
J)
Hualcan
21,000
Minchin (?),
,,
Huandoy
20,800
Wiener.
Ecuador
Chimborazo .
20,498
Whymper.
>)
Antisana
. 19,335
,
>> •
Cayarabe
19,186
,,
Peru .
Tutupaca
18,960
Church.
,,
Misti .
18,500
Weddell.
Colombia
Tolima .
18,400
A''ergara.
,,
Mesa de Hcrveo
18,340
Andre.
,,
Huila .
. 18,000
Reiss and Stubel.
Ecuatlor
Sangai .
17,464
))
, , ,
lUiniza .
17,405
Colombia .
Ruiz
17,390
Vergara.
Venezuela .
Concha^
Coluna J
15,420
Codazzi.
^ Unless she is to be dethroned by Sorata, whose old claims were
tentatively revived in 1896 by Sir Martin Conway {Geogr. Jour. November
1898).
VOL. I C
18 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
The Brazilian Uplands
Between these recently constructed ramparts of the
Pacific and the rugged weather-beaten Atlantic heights,
the contrast is in every respect complete. Here sym-
metry and uniformity are replaced by the wildest con-
fusion, and instead of young formations still preserving
their original contour-lines almost intact under, in many
places, cloudless skies, we have a chaotic grouping of very
old rocks — crystalUne and Archsean, with schists and early
sandstones — here and there underlying Cretaceous and
other Mesozoic deposits, and again exposed, reduced in
height and carved into a great number of separate sections
by atmospheric agencies in a region which, for untold
a?ons, must have always been one of the wettest on the
globe. " The eastern half of Brazil is undoubtedly ancient
land, presenting no trace of Secondary strata, except in
small detached areas near the coast, and where more
recent Tertiary deposits are to be found only in a portion
of the great valley of the Amazon. A mountain range,
having various local designations, but which may best he
called the Serra ^ da Mantiqueira, extends from the
neighbourhood of Sao Paulo to the lower course of the
Itio Sao Francisco for a distance of 1200 miles, and this
is mainly composed of gneiss, sometimes passing into true
granite, syenite, or mica-schist; and the same may be
said of the Serra do ]\'Iar, a less considerable range lying
between the main chain and the coast. To my mind the
conclusion is irresistiljle, that ancient Brazil was one of
^ It should be noticed that in the Portuguese domain the form Serra
takes the place of the Spanish Sierra, a " saw," in reference to the serrated
crests of eroded mountain ranges. Similarly the nasal Sao stands for San
(Saint), as in Sao Francisco (Brazil) and Sa/i, Francisco (California). The
particles do, da are also contracted Portuguese forms replacing the Spanish
del, de la ("of the," mas. and fem.).
GENEKAL SURVEY 19
the greatest mountain regions of the earth, and that its
summits may very probably have exceeded in height any
now existing in the world. What we now behold are
the ruins of the ancient mountains, and the singular coni-
cal peaks are, as Liais has explained, the remains of some
harder masses of metamorphic gneiss, of which the strata
were tilted at a high angle." ^
Thus, while the Cordillera has been steadily rising
till it forms the loftiest range on the globe next to the
Himalayas, the Brazilian system has been worn down to
a mean altitude of probably not more than 4000 or 5000
feet. Even the culminating point of Brazil — Itatiaya
(Itatiaiossii), in the Mautiqueira range, falls below 10,000
feet, and is reduced by some measurements to no more
than 8900 feet. The loftiest peak of the picturesque
" Organs " group in the Serra do Mar is little over 6600
feet, while those of the ranges forming the divides between
the Sao Francisco and the Tocantins and other southern
affluents of the Amazon nowhere exceed 6000 feet. In
the extreme north the Pacaraima chain towards the
Cruiana and Venezuelan frontiers terminates in the
mighty Eoraima mass (7384), which is a point on the
recently determined British-Venezuelan frontier. Paca-
raima consists also of very old (Archaean and Palaeozoic)
formations, and its base must have been washed by
the ancient South -American Mediterranean. Farther
west the still more elevated Guamapi range culminates
in Mount Icutu, which has an estimated altitude of
11,000 feet.
Subsidence and Upheaval
That subsidence as well as erosion has contributed to
modify the character of the old Brazilian Alps is evident
^ Ball, op. cit. p. 314 sq.
20 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
from the now well-established fact, that while the land
has gained on the Pacific side it has been largely en-
croached upon by the Atlantic waters on the Brazilian
seaboard. Hence the remark made by some physio-
graphists that South America is moving westwards, and
is now nearer to Australia and farther from Africa than
in Secondary times. On the coast of Chile there are
terraces due to erosion, but also others which are unques-
tionably marine beaches, affecting the form of flights of
steps, and strewn to a height of over 1000 feet with thick
beds of shells belonging to the species still surviving in
the neighbouring seas.
But the opposite phenomenon is seen on a large scale
on the Atlantic side, and especially about the Amazon
estuary. Here the long-continued invasions of the sea
are not only arresting the formation of a delta by dis-
tributing the sedimentary matter all round the shelving
shores of Guiana, but are, so to say, transforming the
great estuary to a marine gulf. The main stream has
already lost over 400 miles of its lower course, and the
old river banks are now permanently flooded as far sea-
wards as the 100-fathom line. Hence it is that the
Parnahyba and several otlier streams which formerly
joined the south bank now find their way to the coast
in independent channels. Even the Tocantins has almost
ceased to be an attiuent of the Amazon, with which it is
connected only by an intricate system of shifting lateral
branches.
Flora
One of the most eloquent passages in Buckle's History
of Civilisation in England was inspired by the study of
animal and vegetable life in Brazil, which, excluding the
Andean plateaux and the narrow southern extremity.
PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL RELATIONS 21
may be taken as in this respect the typical region, of the
whole continent. It is pointed out that the progress of
mankind beyond the savage state has here been retarded,
and even arrested, by the prevailing excess of heat and
moisture, a combination far more favourable to the de-
velopment of vegetation and of the lower than of the
higher animal organisms. Hence no other region of the
globe except the ]\Ialay lands, where like conditions pre-
vail, can compare with South America in the relative
extent, vigour, and variety of its forest growths, and of
its exuberant insect life. For a vivid picture of sunless
and trackless w^oodlands of boundless extent, the miud
turns less readily to the Congo forest zone, vast though it
be, than to the densely-timbered AmazoniEin plains, which
are continued with little interruption far up the eastern
slopes of the Cordillera, through the Guianas round to
the shady rivers Magdalena and Atrato in the far north-
west, and in other directions over a great part of
Southern Brazil, of Corrientes and Gran Chaco, traversed
by all the northern and western head-waters of the
Parana-Paraguay system.
Even in the uplands a rich arborescent vegetation
creeps up to within 3000 feet of the snow-line, which,
however, is here, as elsewhere, a " variable quantity,"
depending, as it does, not so much on latitude as on the
aspect of the land, light and shade, moisture and other
local conditions. Indeed :\Ir. Whymper objects to the
expression altogether, seeing " little utility in retaining a
phrase which is incapable of definition, and is interpreted
so variously " (p. 347). In the Cordilleras it seems to
range from as low as 1 4,500 to 16,700 and even 17,000
feet, and this must be so especially in the equatorial
region, where flowering plants, such as gentians, ranun-
culi, geraniums, mallows, fuchsias, verbenas, asters, and
22 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
other comiMsitce occur between 14,000 and 16,000 feet.
Mosses and lichens mantle the summit of Corazon
(15,870), and on other slopes reach much higher, while
currant bushes and tall grasses 8 to 9 feet high fall little
below 14,000 feet.
In the same region, and as far south as Bolivia, the
eastern escarpments of the plateaux exposed to the
moist are -bearing Atlantic breezes are clothed with coni-
fers and other forest growths up to an altitude of 11,500
or perhaps even 12,000 feet. So numerous are the
indigenous useful species both in the montana, as these
wooded uplands are called, and almost everywhere in the
Amazonian and the other great fluvial basins, that since
the discovery Europe has derived more alimentary,
medicinal, and other economic plants from South America
than from any other quarter of the globe. Such are the
potato with its cousin the tomato, tobacco, maize, yams,
Brazil nuts, ground-nuts, guava, the pine-apple, rubber,
ipecacuanha, sarsaparilla, cacao, coca, chinchona, ^ and
several cabinet-woods.
In the Brazilian uplands the tropical flora ranges
southwards to the Santos district of the province of Sao
Paulo beyond Capricorn. Here " trees and shrubs in
wonderful variety contend for the mastery, and maintain
a precarious struggle for existence with a crowd of
climbea's and parasites. So dense is the mass of vegeta-
tion that it is impossible to penetrate in any direction
farther than a few yards, and there is no choice but to
follow the track that leads to the summit of the slope." "
A general survey of the South American flora reveals
^ The very best species of this quinine-yielding plant have only lately
been discovered in the forests about the sources of the Inamliari, an
affluent of the Madre de Dios draining the Peruvian province of Caravaya
(Sir CI. Markhara, Geogr. Jour. (Feb. 1896), p. 188).
- Ball, p. 307.
PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL RELATIONS
23
an exceptional number of indigenous types, especially
of flowering plants. Some of these may, no doubt, have
originated in the Cordilleras : but the chief area of birth
and dispersion would appear to have been the older
CHIXCHO:SA.
Brazilian highlands, at a time when they enjoyed a
climate suitable for such developments. " At a period
when physical conditions in the lower regions of the
earth's surface were widely different, and the proportion
of carbonic acid gas present in the atmosphere was very
much greater than it has been since the deposition of the
24
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVKL
coal-measures, it was only in the liigher regions of great
mountain countries that conditions prevailed at all
similar to tliose now existing." Hence, " if the early
types of flowering jJants were confined to the high moun-
tains, we could not expect to find their remains in deposits
formed in shallow lakes and estuaries, until after the
probably long period during which they were gradually
modified to adapt them to altered physical conditions."
It is therefore on the ancient Brazilian uplands that we
should look for " the ancestors of the many forms of vege-
tation which have stamped their character on the vegetation
of the continent" (ih. p. 318).
PHYSICAL AND BIOLOr.ICAL DELATIONS
25
Fauna
Xo more striking illustration of Buckle's broad infer-
ence could be afforded than the remarkable fact that,
from the re«;ion wliich has enriched civilisation with
'OTf
^■:.
so many valuable economic plants, the Old World has
obtained not a single useful animal. The aborigines
themselves had domesticated the llama (which, like its
Asiatic congener, was endowed with a somewhat morbid
temperament, I'endering it useless for the rough work of
26 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
cultured peoples in other lands), and the alpaca, guinea-
pig, and alco, all, however, confined to the limits of the
Peruvian empire. There are many indigenous forms,
some, like the tapir, peccari, jaguar, spectacled bear,
puma, cayman, rhea (" ostrich "), and several of the lower
anthropoid apes, allied to the corresponding genera or
orders in the eastern hemisphere, and often presenting
much interest to naturalists. But all these and the many
other native species — sloth, vampire, ant-eater, agouti,
tree-porcupine, viscacha, anaconda, toucan, humming.-bird,
and others — are of little or no economic use.
The South American Neogseic Eealm
In Prof. Lydekker's scheme of the geograpical dis-
tribution of mammals, South America, with the West
Indies and the central peninsulas and isthmuses as far
north as South Mexico, constitutes the " Xeogteic Eealm,"
that is to say, the zoological zone which is most character-
istic of the New World and has least in common with
the Old.^ The reference, of course, is not to post-Columbian
times, during which the region has been peopled by
multitudes of such useful animals as the horse, ox, sheep
and pig, but to the lowest Miocene age, when Soutli
America was an area of evolution and dispersion for many
generalised ^ animal as well as vegetable forms.
At that time the South American fauna differed far
more than it does at present from that of the rest of the
' A Geographical History of Mammals, Cambridge, 1896.
'^ By a generalised type or form, to which is opposed specialised, is under-
stood, in biological language, an organism of lower or less complicate
structure from which spring liigher organisms in diverging lines of develop-
ment. Thus from a common simian ancestor of relatively simple
structure are derived the higher man-like apes by slow processes of
specialisation extended over long periods of time.
PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL RELATIONS 27
world. This may be accounted for by its isolation from
the northern continent before the completion of the land-
connection at the isthmus of Panama in the late Miocene
epoch. In any case it is placed beyond doubt by the
extraordinary profusion of peculiar mammalian and other
animal remains of the Pleistocene, if not even of the
Pliocene tertiary epoch, found in various districts, especially
of South Brazil and Argentina. Such sites as the Lagoa
Santa caves of Minas Geraes, the so-called " Pampean beds "
of the Pampas, and the vast shell-mounds (" kitchen-
middens ") of the seaboard north and south of the Plate
estuary, have yielded great quantites of the bones of such
gigantic creatures as the mastodon, the .ground-sloth,
mylodon, and many others, often in the closest association
with those of early man himself, thus showing that these
monsters had survived down to comparatively recent
(Pleistocene) times. ' What has become of them ? What
has become of the extensive forest growth in which some
of them found congenial homes, and which at that time
covered large tracts of the now treeless Pampas plains ?
" During the whole time that the alluvial deposits of the
Parana and Paraguay rivers were being laid down, and
well on into the human period, the mammalian fauna of
the Pampean epoch continued to flourish, until there came
a complete sweep of all the larger forms, clearing oft' the
whole of the ground-sloths, glyptodonts, mastodons, toxo-
donts, horses, sabre-toothed tigers, and the larger members
of the camel tribe, and in the Argentine leaving only
armadillos, guanacos, a few deer, a number of rodents,
various cats and foxes, as well as skunks, to represent the
vast assemblage of strange and giant creatures that once
roamed over its plains. Still more remarkable is the
former abundance of gigantic ant-eaters, dependent on
forests for their existence, in the tracts now occupied by
28
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the coast deserts of Tarapaca. It is practically certain
that the clean sweep of the forests of Argentina and the
larger mammals of the whole of South America is not
due to the hand of man.
The problem is further complicated by the circumstance
that the fossil remains of nearly all the larger animals
AllMADlLLO.
which formerly inhabited the Pampas are also found in
the caverns of Brazil, where the climate is now, and
probably always has been, tropical. Up to the present it
is, accordingly, impossible to account satisfactorily for the
disappearance of all the larger forms from among the
mammalian fauna of South America." ^ May the ultimate
1 Lydekker, p. 121.
PHYSICAL AND BIOLOGICAL RELATIONS 29
solution be found in Colonel Church's restored Pampean
Sea, taken in connection with the gradual wearing down
of the Brazilian Alps and the consequent change of climate,
making the enviroimientj as indicated by Buckle, no
longer favourable for the existence of large animal forms ?
CHATTEE II
EARLY ETHICAL RELATIONS
Inhabitants of South America — Primitive man in South America of two
Types — Physical Characters of the Aborigines — Their Polysynthetic
Sjjeech — Number and Distribution of tlie South-American Languages
— The Lingoa Geral — Table of the South-American Stock Races and
Languages — General Culture — Contrasts between North and South
— Iso-cultural Zones — The Cultureless Zone — The civilised Zone.
Inhabitants of South America
But from the cataclysm, if such it was, which swept away
the old Pampeau fauna, mau survived. That he had
spread in early Pleistocene times from his eastern cradle
to the New World by probably two routes — from Europe
by the still persisting land-connection with Greenland
and Labrador, and from Asia by the narrow Bering
Strait — has been placed beyond reasonable doubt by the
discovery of his works and even of his remains in many
parts of the western hemisphere. These fossil remains,
representing both of the two primordial types, which may
be called the long-headed Afro-European ^ and the round-
headed Asiatic, are, strange to say, found in far greater
alrandance in the southern than in the northern division.
^ In this compound expression the first term has no reference to the
African Negro, but to the African Haniite of C'aucasic type, wlio passed
with the Pleistocene fauna into South and West Europe, and tiieuce pre-
sumably to the New World.
EARLY ETHICAL RELATIONS 31
In fact North America has nothing to show of early man
himself apart from his handiwork, except the still some-
what doubtful round-headed " Calaveras skull " from the
gold-bearing Californian drift ; whereas numerous crania
and even skeletons of both types have been found widely
distributed between the numerous paraderos, or ancient
settlements of the Pampas beds in Argentina, the Lagua
Santa caves, and the samhaqui or shell-mounds strewn
along the coast from Santa Catherina in Brazil to and
beyond the Plate estuary. A skull of round shape was
found by Eoth under the carapace of a huge glyptodon
near Pontimelo, and another by Lund in the Lagoa Santa
district, where, however, the long-heads greatly pre-
dominated, as they did also in the paraderos, in the shell-
heaps on l)oth sides of the Plate estuary, and as far north
as Santarem and Marajo Island in the Amazon estuary.
Few fossil remains of early man have yet been
brought to light in Patagonia, and none in Fuegia. But
his presence in both regions is attested by the numerous
stone implements found deeply embedded in the banks
of the liio Negro, and in the very old shell-mounds of
vast size occurring in several parts of the Puegian Archi-
pelago. One of these rivals if it does not exceed those
of the Brazilian and Buenos Ayres seaboard in age and
extent. Lovisato describes it as still nearly a mile
long, although greatly eroded by the waves, and rising 24
feet above the present sea-level, while the shells of whicli
it mostly consists are much larger than the correspondin'4
species now inhabiting the surrounding waters.
Primitive Man in South America of two Types
From these and many other data, which need not
here be further specified, the inference seems inevitable
32 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
that South America was already iii Pleistocene times
peopled to its utmost limits by the two primitive races
that still persist in the same region. The long-heads
are believed to have been the first arrivals, and their
subsequent migrations from the early settlements in South
Brazil and Argentina have been followed in all directions,
north to Guiana, east to the Sao Francisco and to the
Botocudos of the Aimores Coast Eange, west to Santa
and even to Ancon on the shores of the Pacific, south to
the long-headed Onas and Yahgans of Fuegia.
Later came the round-heads, keeping generally to the
Pacific side, and in pre-Columbian times developing
several centres of culture, such as those of the Muyscas
(Chibchas), Yuncas (Chimus), Quichuas (Peruvians),
Aymaras or Collas (Bolivians), along the line of Andean
plateaux from the Cundinamarca district in Colombia to
Chile. With these might be grouped the ruder but more
vigorous Chilean Aucas (Araucas, Araucanians), who
spread eastwards to the Colorado and Negro rivers, where
they were till lately represented by the round-headed
Puelches, not to be confounded with the more primitive
long-headed Tehuelches or Chuelches. The former were
the Pampas Indians, the latter the Patagonians of the
early writers, but both are now either extinct or swept
into reservations.
With the arrival of the round-heads, probably before
the close of the Pleistocene age, what may be called
the first settlement of the land was completed. After
that, till the advent of the Avhite man, no serious contri-
butions could have been drawn from any quarter, the
long narrow isthmian links between north and south
preventing invasions in numbers sufficiently large to
overcome the resistance of those already in possession of
the rugged Colombian uplands. From this rapid survey
EAKLY ETHICAL EELATIONS 33
we may therefore conclude that the constituent elements
of the true aborigines were twofold — long-heads of un-
known origin and short-headed Asiatic Mongoloids, the
former mainly in the east, the latter mainly in the west.
Before the subsidence of the great inland sea the two
groups must have kept somewhat apart, each advancing
or lagging behind in the general onward movement of
human development, in conformity with the more or less
favourable character of their respective environments.
But after the disappearance of the intervening waters,
impassable by populations whose knowledge of navigation
never at any time advanced beyond the rudimentary
state, contacts hostile or friendly become more frequent,
and free intercommunications established especially along
the transverse line of the low water-parting, as above in-
dicated by Colonel Church.
Physical Characters of the Aborigines
Thus were gradually softened or even blurred the at
first sharply contrasted Mongolic and Caucasic features,
so that we have now rather a general Mongolo-Caucasic
type, which may rightly be called American. It is a
Ijlend of scarcely yet specialised European and Asiatic
characters, further modified in a new environment, just
as these were themselves developed from a generalised
Pleistocene ancestor in their respective environments.
So true is this thfit the latest and best observers, such as
Dr. Ehrenreich ^ and his associates, declare that these
aborigines are a product of the soil, like all other long-
isolated organisms, and are no more Mongols than they
are Caucasians.
^ See especially this traveller's masterly treatise on The Aborigines of
Brazil, Brunswick, 1897.
VOL. 1 D
34 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPtAVEL
They even go further, and assert that the South
Americans approximate on the whole nearer to the
Caucasic than to the Asiatic, so that we have travelled
far from the days when ethnologists thought they had
settled matters by writing off the inhabitants of the New
World as " a branch of the Mongol stock." From the
Caucasic they have inherited a tall stature, fairly sym-
metrical frames, round straight eyes, large, straight or
aquiline nose, and, as should be expected, all these
traits are most conspicuous on the east side. To the
Mongol they are indebted for their long, lank, black hair,
large though not very prominent cheek-bones, and a
yellowish-brown complexion, which often shades off to a
lightish brown or a coppery tinge, with little trace of
yellow or of the " red " hue popularly attributed to them.
To the Mongol may also be in some measure due that
sullen, or at least, reserved, and outwardly impassive
temperament, wliich is so highly characteristic of those
aborigines, and is at the same time so strongly illustrated
in their peculiarly heavy and massive speech.
Their Polysynthetic Speech
But this speech is entirely their own, so much so
that not even its germs can any longer be traced to the
Old AVorld. The American differs from all other linguistic
groups not merely in its vocabulary and grammatical
structure, but in its very morphology, so that it must be
classed, like plant or animal forms, in an order ajjart
from all others. The germs, no doubt, were brought
with their Pleistocene ancestors from the eastern hemi-
sphere, but in the process of evolution in their new homes
have been obliterated past recovery.
This very evolution itself has resulted in the new
EAHLY ETHICAL EELATIONS 35
" Order," which takes the name of 'poly synthesis, to indi-
cate its most striking feature, that is, a tendency to
extreme synthesis or composition, in virtue of which all
the words of the sentence may be merged in a single term
often of prodigious length. Such massive expression of
heavy thought is effected partly by syncope, that is, by
clipping and cutting down the several words themselves,
by which, for instance, regn-boga is reduced through r6n-
hoga to rainbow ; but mainly by embodying the relational
elements, attributes and even the nominal object in the
verbal root, so that it becomes impossible to say " I
strike," but synthetically " I-man-strike-dog " (or some
other object) repeatedly (or in some other way), etc., all
in a breath. Now this strange mode of thought and
expression, which is absolutely unknown elsewhere,
prevails, with a few trifling and explicable exceptions,
throughout the whole continent from Alaska to Fuegia,
as may be seen by two such examples as the Eskimo
igdlorssualiortugssarsiumavq and the Hipurina (Amazonian)
Nicugacaigaturumatinii. Here culture-stages make not
the slightest difference, and the cultivated Aztec and
Quichuan are cast in precisely the same mould as the rude
Tarascan or Patasonian.
Number and Distribution of the South- American Languages
Another point to be noticed is the extraordinary
number of stock languages, which are variously estimated
for the whole continent at from 100 to 200 or more,
for nobody exactly knows, and of these perhaps one half
may be assigned to South America. By stocks are to
be understood linguistic groups which have nothing in
common beyond their general poly synthetic character,
and are as irreducible to a single mother- tongue as are, for
36 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AJSTD TRAVEL
instance, the Semitic and Aryan groups in the Old World.
In the whole of Europe there are only two such stocks,
— Aryan and Basque, Finno-Turki being a comparatively
recent intruder. How then are perhaps fifty times more
current amongst an indigenous population thirty or forty
times less ? It is a wonderful phenomenon, as inexplic-
able as is the total disappearance of the Pleistocene fauna
and flora.
Attention should here be called to the extremely
irregular distribution of these linguistic groups, which, as
in North America, are mostly crowded together in small
spaces on the west side of the continent, where one alone
— Quichua-Aymara — ranges over a wide domain, not
however, conterminous, as is often assumed, with that of
the old Peruvian empire. In the central and eastern
regions there are several such linguistic families, notably
the Carib, Arawak, and especially Tupi-Guarani, which
are spread over vast areas, and the hmits of which have
even been enlarged by recent exploration. Thus the
Carib, hitherto supposed to have originated either in
Guiana or the Antilles, if not even on the North-
American mainland, spreading thence southwards a little
beyond the Orinoco basin, is now shown to have had its
cradle about the head-waters of the Xingu and other
southern affluents of the Amazon in the very heart of
the continent, whence the migratory movements were
directed northwards to the West Indies if not even to
Florida, before that peninsula was occupied by the
Seminoles.
The Lingoa Geral
Owing to other causes, of a social and political rather
than of an ethnical nature, a still wider expansion has
been given, not to the Tupi-Guarani race, but to the
EARLY ETHICAL RELATIONS 37
Tupi-Guarani language, which has become the so-called
lingoa gcral} that is, the " general language," the lingua
franca, or common medium of intercourse, not only
amongst the natives but even amongst some of the
mixed European populations throughout half the continent.
With the development of missionary enterprise the
Jesuits, who from the first took a foremost part in this
work, soon discovered that their operations were greatly
hampered by the multiplicity of local dialects, to which
the neophites clung with great tenacity. To force upon
them their own Spanish or Portuguese tongue was found
to be impossible, so that the only alternative was
the adoption of some native form of speech, the
genius of which would be better suited to their mental
capacity.
For the Andean plateau regions the Quichuan of the
Peruvian empire was naturally selected, and for the rest
of the continent the still more widespread Guarani-Tupi,
whose numerous branches ramified over a great part of
the Amazon and Upper Parana basins, and were also
current amongst the numerous Tupi tribes of the
Brazilian seaboard. Preference was eventually given to
one of these Tupi forms, which was accordingly introduced
into all the stations throughout the Portuguese and
many of the Spanish possessions, especially about the
Parana-Paraguay confluence. All the natives resorting
to the Missions were required to learn this " common
speech," which was also taught in the schools, employed
in the pulpit, and used for general administrative
purposes.
This policy was attended by permanent and far-reaching
^ This Portuguese form has taken precedence of the Spanisli Icngaa
general, because the Brazilian lingua franca has obtained far greater cur-
rency than that adopted for the Andean regions.
38
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
results. Having once realised the advantage of such
a general medium of intercourse, the natives continued to
avail themselves of it even after the expulsion of the
Jesuits and the suppression of the missions, and although
afterwards many of the tribes relapsed into paganism
and the savage state. Thus it has come about that the
dialect of an obscure coast tribe, slightly modified and
reduced to written form by European missionaries, has
become widely diffused throughout Brazil, Paraguay,
Corrientes, and some other parts of Argentina. It
appears to be still spreading amongst the aborigines, and,
like Quichuan in Pervi and Maya in Yucatan, is even
current amongst some of the mixed European communities
themselves.
In the subjoined table all the chief South American
peoples are grouped as far as possible according to their
respective stock languages, which, in the midst of so
much physical uniformity, are found to be the most
convenient if not the only means of classification. It
should be noted that although many are stated to be
" extinct," this does not necessarily mean extirpation, but
often nothing more than disappearance, by absorption in
the politically or socially dominant people.
SOUTH AMERICAN STOCK RACES AND LANGUAGES
Stocks.
Main Divisions.
Domain.
\
Nutihara, Tataba, Chmcd, "\
Tuneho j
Cauca Valley.
Chibcha
"\
Paucura, Petacay, Timha, ^
Head-waters of R. Mag-
Pastu j
dalena.
Choco
Baudo, Tado, Noanama, Citarae .
Rs. Atrato and San Juan.
Paeze .
Colima, Manipo, Naura
Upper Magdalena.
COCONUCO
{
Barbacoa, Cayapa, Cuaiquerre, \
Mocao j
Colombia-Ecuador frontiers
EAKLY ETHICAL RELATIONS
39
Stocks.
QuiTU
Chinchasuyu^
Inca
Aymara
(collasuyu) 1
" Yunca"
Chango
HUANCA
Main Divisions.
Cayambe, Puritacxi,, Cvllahuasa,
Linguachi, CataJballu
Cara .....
Carangue . . . . .
Llacta-cunca, Amhatu, Mucha,^
Puruhu, TiquisamM, Saroi,
Caf>ari, Palta {near Loja),
Zaizu [about Zaruma) ^
H'uancacilca . . . ■■
Manta . . . . ,
Tacami . . . - .
Ayahuaca (Cassa and Callua)
Huancapampa
Huacrachucv
Chacha [OJiacluqmya)
Cajamarca .
Huamadiucu
Conchucu
Huanucu
Huanca
Hucana, Sora
ChoMca
Inca .
Quichua
Cana, Canche
Colla .
Lupaca
Pacasa
Carangua, Quillaca
Uru {of Puquina speech)
Galchaqxii {of Quichua speech
Aiacameno (1) .
Chiviu, Lambayaque [both of Mo-
ckica speech)
Pre- Inca race {now of Quichva
speech)
Nortli of Quito.
Coast, Charapcato to Cape
S. FraucisfO.
Bordering on tlie Pastus.
South of Quito.
I. of Pana aud coast to Pta.
Sta. Elena.
Coast N. of Huancavilcas.
Coast at Atacames.
N. to borders of Quitu Do-
main.
Near Jaen de Bracanioras.
Both sides of Maranon gorges
Mountains on right banlv
Maranon.
Cajamarca Valley.
Lower down on the Maranon.
Maranon and head-waters
of coast streams.
Head- waters of R. Huallaga.
Jauja and Torma Valleys.
In the Coast Cordillera.
From Gnauta to the R.
Apurimac.
Cuzco and Vilcamayu Valley.
Rs. Apurimac and Pacha-
choca.
Head-waters R. Vilcamayu.
N. of L. Titicaca.
W. side L. Titicaca.
E. side L. Titicaca.
S. side L. Titicaca.
S.-W. corner L. Titicaca.
Prov. Tucuman and south-
ern parts of Gran Chaco.
Atacama district.
Prov. Trujillo.
Tarapaca.
Peruvian Coast i'rom Par-
niunca to Acari (9°-14°S.)
40
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
Main Divisions.
Antisutu
Jevkro
(JiVARO)
Zapauo
Betoye
Pano
TiCUNA, Ta- j
CUNA, OB -
JOMANA
JURI
Tacana
Lego . . ^
(Mosetene) j
PaRus
Groups.
M
Mojos I
Groups, "i
Barre
Anti or Campa
Chunclw : —
Huachipayri, Tuyuneri, Sirin- \
eyri j
Caranga, Suchimani .
Aguaruna, Antipao, HuavMsa,
Ibanoma, Iquito, Cotopasa,
Pindo, Paute
A huishiri, A ndoa, Curaraye, "
Matagene, Mauta, Nugamu,
Nushinu, Rotuno, Shiripuno,
Sinchictu, Supinu, Tiputini,
Yasuni
Pioje, Ocoguage .
Ele, Situja
Tama, Acanejo .
Aniaguage, Correguagc, Cence-
guage, Zeona
Uav.pe, Tucano .
A guana, Cholone, Motilone,
Jibito, Ajuana
Amcjuara, Pirro, Capanahua,
Cashibo, C'onibo, Remo, Setebo,
Shipibo, Send
Caruana, Jajunuma, Javiolapa,
Picuama, Jocacurama, Mali-
numa, Lamarama, Varauama,
Urizsama
Juri-coma, Oacao, Moira,'\
Assai, Curassi, Oira A pi, \ ■■
Tucano, Ubi, Uebytu, Ta- |
boca ) :
Araona, Equari, Maropa, Tumii-
pasa, Maracani, Tm-omona,
Pucopacari
Guarayo, Siriona, Jacare ■
CanaviaH, Catacaji, Aqxiiri,^
Gutuquira, Hipurina, Jama- \
mart, Maneteneri, Pammary, j
Puru-Puru J
Baur^, Movimo, Erinima, Tapa-'\
cur a, Ronama,Caniciana, Sapi, |
Bolepa, Tiboi, Rotoronno, Pe- j
chicyo, Mure, Cayababa J
Tapacuraca, Napaca, Paunaca, \
Paiconeca, Quitemoca, Man- .
caca, Zuracarijuia I
Upper Ucayali and its
affluents.
Forests E. of Cuzco.
Prov. Caravaya, E. of Tur-
ina in Peru.
Between Rs. GhincMpe and
Pastasa ; and both sides
R. Maraiiou.
R. Napo basin, and thence
to the R. Pastasa ; about
12,000 sq. miles.
Rs. Napo and Putuniayo.
R. Casanare.
Rs. Yari and Cagua.
lis. Gaqueta and Rutumayo
R. Uaupe.
R. Huallaga.
R. Ucayali.
Rs. Putiimayo and Maranoi
about Tabatinga.
R. Amazon, between Rs.
Putuniayo ad Japura and
Rio Negro.
Upper Madre de Dios Basin.
Tipuani affluent of R. Beni.
Rio Purus.
Rs. Maniore and Bfiii.
Rs. Cassiquiare, JIaraina
and Upper Negro.
EARLY ETHICAL RELATIONS
41
Stocks.
Main Divisions.
DOMAIX.
CURETU .
Isanna(?) Uaenambu{?)
Bet. R.S. Japura and Uaupe.
Cababuyana -
Caraguana, Pocoana, Moacarana, \
Yaribaru, Mariguyana, Taru- \
caguaca J
Atoi-ai, Wapisiana, Amaripa
R. Japura below Basururu
confluence.
British C4uiana.
Alaypure, Baniva
R. Orinoco.
Yuana, Marawa, .
\l. Amazon.
Arawak . -
Goajiro {?), Cocina (?)
(xoajira Peninsula.
Vaura, Mahinacu
Upper Xingu.
Parexi, Cahsi
Upper Tapajos.
Kwana, Layana .
Upper Paraguay.
A rawan
Marajos Is.
Bakairi, Nahuquu
Upper Xingu.
Pamella
Lower Guapore.
Apiaca {Apeiaca)
Lower Tocantins.
Apoto, Wayawai .
Brazilian Guiana.
Caeie . . ■
Galibi, Rucuyenne
French „
Galina
Dutch
Akawai, Arecuna, Macusi, Para-
mona
1 British
Makirifare, Mayongeong
Venezuelan ,,
Uitoto, Coreguaji, Carijina .
Upper Yapura.
^
Qalib {Carib) ....
Is. St. Vincent, Honduras.
Warrau
Guarauno
Coast between Rs. Orinoco
and Corentjnis.
Tupinainia, Tanuyo .
Lower Amazon, E. Para.
Tupajaro, Temba.
R. Para.
Jacunda, Pacaia, Tecuna-Pena .
Lower Xingu.
Aneto, Manitsawa, Camay ura
Upper Xingu.
JEmerillun, Ovampi
French Guiana.
Goajire, Tocantins
R. Tocantins.
Oiuagua, Cocdma
Lr. Huallaga and Maraiion.
Tupi .
Petiguare .....
R. Parahiba.
Cahete
R. Sao Francisco.
Tupininquin ....
Prov. Espirito Santo.
Tapiguae . . . . '
Coast from Pernambuco to
St. Paulo.
Tupinambaze . . . [
Provs. Bahia, Sergipe, and
Pernambuco.
Tummimivi, Tamoiae .
Rio de Janeiro.
f
Mundrucu ....
R. Tapajos and right bank
Amazon.
Mauhe: Tatu, Tasiuha, Guari-'\
Between Rs. Tapajos and
ba, Inamba, Caribwna /
Amazon.
Guarani . <
Chiriguano, Siriono . . [
Gran Chaco and S.E. Bo-
livian frontiers.
Guarani proper . . . [
Paraguay, Entre-Rios, Mis-
iones.
Guarayi .....
Now in Mojos Missions.
V
Diaguite .....
Prov. Tucumau.
1
42
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Main Divisions.
Chiquito ( I
Group 1 I
BORORO .
f\
I Ges .
(Tapuya)
Payagtja
Charrua
Abipone or/
Callagae \^
LULE . . i
Mataguayo \
(Mataco) J
MOCOBI
TOBA
C'HURUMATA \
AND CHICHAS -
Orejones J
Guaycuru
Araucano . <
PUELCHE \
(Gknnaken) J
Tehuelche
Yahgan and )
Alacaluf J
Tapacuraca, Napaca, Paunaca,
Paiconeca, Quitemoca, Mon-
coca, Ziiracanguia
Yaraye
Botocudo {BuTung)
Camacan, Patacho, Massaco.
Gayapo {North) .
Cayapo ( West), or Suyo
Cayapo [South) .
Akua {Cherente, Chavante)
Caraya, Aruma .
Apiacare
Payagua proper .
Chacamoco, Angaite, Sancqxma
Cadjuevo . . ■ .
Minuane, Cruenoa
Naquegtgaguehee, Rucahee, Ja-
coniaga,
Lule proper, Vilela : Ontoampa,
Yeconoampa, Ipa, Paiaine
Pitilaga
f
\
Moluche, Picunche, Puencke, \
Peye, Keye J
Ranqualche {Ranquele), Querandi
Calilehet, Culinan, Yacana, Ona
Between Rs. Mamore and
Itenez.
Matto Grosso, Goyaz.
Aj'inores Mts. and R. Doce.
E. Brazil.
E. Brazilian Forests.
R,s. Araguaya, Xingu and
Tocantins.
Upper Xingu.
Parana head-waters.
R. Tocantins.
R.. Xingu.
R. Tapajos.
Both sides R. Paraguay
about Asuncion.
Right bank R. Paraguay
in Gran Chaco.
Left bank Paraguay, Brazilo
Paraguay frontier.
Rs. Parana and Uruguay.
Rs. Bermejo and Rio
Grande, Gran Chaco.
Gran Chaco.
R. Bermejo, Gran Chaco.
Gran Chaco.
Rs. Pilcoraayo and Bermejo.
Gran Chaco between the
Chiiiguaiias and Guay-
curus.
Between Rs. Pilconiayo and
Yaveviri, Grau Chaco.
Chilian Andes, Coast and
Islands.
Pampas, S. to R. Negro.
Patagonia, E. Fuegia.
Central and W. Fuegia.
General Culture — Contrasts between North and South
A closer study of these multifarious populations
reveals the strikins; fact that all the cultured or semi-
To fcux pwie 4Z.
E THIsr OX. O GI C AI.
and
PHIL.OLOGICAX, MAP
or
SOUTH AMERICA
,Slxo"wiii^ tke General DxstmbTUicMr of tli.e
INOICENOUS RACES
■^'/^ Anl tke Positio^n. of the vaxions
LinCUISTIC FAMILIES
Names of Stocks - ARAWAK
^ ^ Aii-<fi»xsioni"Maypure
London , Eiward Stanford, 12, 13 &- 14r. Long Acxe. W. C .
EARLY ETHICAL KELATIONS 43
cultured peoples have from all known time been confined
to the comparatively narrow western uplands between
Colombia and Chile, while at the discovery the rest of
the continent was, and in some measure still is, a seething
mass of utter savagery. In most other regions the bulk
of the inhabitants stand on or about the same plane of
general progress, or at least the transitions are gradual
from the lower to the higher states. Such is especially
the case in North America, where under more favourable
climatic relations the natives, taken as a whole, had
advanced considerably beyond those of the south. Here
the ruder tribes have nothing to show comparable to the
mounds of various types scattered, in some places pro-
fusely, over the Mississippi valley and the Appalachian
lands. The Iroquois, Algonquins and others, supposed
to be purely hunting or predatory tribes, had brought
considerable tracts under cultivation in pre-Columbian
times, and the passage is almost imperceptible from the
mound-builders to the more settled Natchez, Seminole,
and other groups in the south-east, and again to the still
higher Pueblo communities in the extreme south-west
(Arizona, New Mexico).
Iso-Cultural Zones
But in South America there are no transitions, or only
such as in later times had been developed to a limited
extent with the eastward expansion of the Incas' political
sway down the slopes of the Cordillera, without anywhere
quite reaching the lowlands. In fact it w^ould almost
seem as if the policy of the Incas w^as rather to defend
the approaches to their upland citadels from the attacks
of the ferocious Chunchos, and other savage denizens of the
forests watered by the Amazonian head-streams, than to
44 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
extend the bounds of the empire in that direction. Yet
several military expeditions were sent eastwards, and
large tracts of the Montana conquered and permanently
incorporated in the empire. At the same time all the
slopes by which Cuzco and the other eastern districts
might be reached from the Upper Ucayali (Yucay,
Urubamba) were guarded by formidable works planned
and executed with remarkable engineering skill. The
Yucay valley was defended by the extensive fortifica-
tions of Pisac, where every height was crowned with
towers, every inequality in the rocks or other vantage
ground filled in and faced with smooth slabs impossible
to scale, every strategic point occupied by defensive works
scarcely surpassed by ancient or modern military science.
A line traced from a little east of Bogota along the
windings of the Andean plateaux to about 30° S. and
then deflected down the Maule valley to the coast, that
is, along the southern limit of the Peruvian empire, will
mark ofi" with sufficient precision the cultural and savage
or barbaric zones to the right and left, and will at the
same time show how immeasurably the latter exceeded
the former in extent. The Incas' capital, Cuzco, within
280 miles of the Pacific, stood close to this parting-line,
so that, in a day's journey down the head-waters of the
Ucayali, you passed abruptly from a land of orderly
government, with well-developed political and social in-
stitutions, to a region bounded eastwards only by the
Atlantic, where not a single community could be met
which had advanced beyond the fully organised tribal
state.
Of all these countless fractions of humanity the Aucas,
just south of the Maule frontier, were amongst the most
advanced. Yet they had neither properly constituted
tribal groups nor hereditary chiefs, nor even patriarchal
EAELY ETHICAL RELATIONS 45
jurisdiction. No man recognised the authority of any-
body ; the father scarcely ventured to exercise his
natural influence within the narrow family circle ; there
were no serfs or slaves, no social distinctions of any kind.
If the nation, for such nevertheless it was, held together,
and if the ethical standard was high, it was due partly
to the love of freedom, by which every heart was inspired
to resist the disciplined pressure of the craven Peruvian
hosts from the north, and partly to the salutary belief
that their conduct was observed by the vigilant eye of
their forefathers dwelling in the stars set in the blue
skies above their land.
The Cultureless Zone
But beyond the narrow confines of these " Iroquois of
the South," as they have been somewhat inaptly called,
much of the land was wrapped in darkness and deso-
lation, homo Jioviini lupus — man a wolf to his fellow-
man — while head-hunting, cannibalism in exceedingly
repulsive forms, brutal treatment of the women and
children, prevailed to some extent both amongst the
Amazonian and the Brazilian aborigines.
It is, however, right to say that, although for the
most part living in a state of nature, many of the
Amazonian natives were, and still are, amongst the
noblest and most intelligent of all wild tribes. Hence
the accounts given by some observers of extremely rude
and savage customs must be taken as referring only to
exceptionally debased groups, such as the Macus of the
Eio Negro. These, we are told, have neither clothes
nor houses, but only a few leaves stitched together as a
shelter against the rain, yet have discovered a most
deadly kind of poison for the arrowheads with which
46 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
they attack other natives and kill everybody in the
captured villages. The Aniajuacas of the Ucayali, near
the old Peruvian frontier, have been over and again
converted to (,'hristianity, each time relapsing and
murdering the evangelists. Even the Antis, who roam
the woods near Cuzco, are described as fierce, cruel
and untamable savages, if not cannibals. Yet they
were closely associated with the Quichuas, and gave their
name both to the Andes and to Anti-swiju, the eastern
division of the empire. The Cashibos, also, of the
Ucayali, eat their aged parents, we are asked to believe,
more from religious sentiment than from cruelty. But
religion has nothing to do with their habit of imitat-
ing the cry of game to decoy and, as is said, devour,
hunters in the woods. Before their conversion it was
the practice of the Cocomas of the Huallaga, but now
removed to the Ucayali, to eat their dead relatives, and
swallow the ground bones in fermented drinks, on the
plea that it was better to be inside a warm friend than
buried in the cold earth.
Worse things are related of the Tupinambas ; the
Tapuyas (" savages ") ; the Botocudos, who hack their
refractory wives with sharp shells ; and of some other
extinct or still surviving natives of the Brazilian sea-
board ; of the Fuegians before the establishment of the
English missions in their midst ; and of others in
Ecuador, Colombia, and the Orinoco basin.
Of monuments, in any intelligible sense of the term,
there can be no question. The whole of this savage
zone, over five million square miles in extent, and oc-
cupied by man since Pleistocene times, has nothing to
remind us of the presence of man except some rude and
infantile carvings, described by some enthusiasts as '" rock
inscriptions," met especially in the Guianas, Argentina,
EARLY ETHICAL RELATIONS 47
and Brazil, and the so-called piedras pintadas, "painted
rocks," which have a much wider range, occurring
also in Argentina and in Chile. All are interesting,
because of the resemblances and analogies they every-
where present both to each other, and also to similar
tracings and sculptures in Arizona, New Mexico, and
other parts of North America. When we consider that
most of them fall far below the artistic skill of the
African bushmen, and of the men of the first Stone Age
in Europe, the suggestion may well be accepted that they
were executed by some of the early immigrants from the
north. The taste, or even the capacity to produce such
carvings or paintings, crude as they are, may have after-
wards been lost. At least they do not appear to be any-
where repeated or imitated by the present populations,
who would almost seem to have fallen below the low
standard of culture possessed by those early immigrants
into the southern continent.
Many of these aborigines have not even reached the
old Stone Age, for they cannot fashion a flint to any
useful shape, and use no implements except shells, bones,
thorns, and other materials supplied by nature. Others
have never netted a hammock or launched a canoe,
though dwelling on gently-flowing streams which seem
designed expressly to foster the art of navigation. This
picture of debasement is completed by one of the Chiquito
tribes, who have the unique distinction of possessing
absolutely no numeral system. The Australians and
Papuans can all count at least up to tii:o ; but these
Bolivians, under the shadow of the stupendous Tiahuanaco
monuments on the shores of Titicaca, have never got
beyond zero. The term etdma, said to mean one, really
means "alone," "apart," so that their arithmetic is a
blank.
48 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
The Civilised Zone
Thus while the wooded escarpments of the plateau
continued to be the abode of rude wild tribes at the
lowest rung of the social ladder, the plateau itself,
treeless and bleak though it was, had long been the seat
of a native culture capable of raising colossal monuments,
elsewhere unrivalled for size and exquisite finish except
in Egypt and Baalbec. These astonishing remains will
have again to engage our attention, and here it must
suffice to point out that they lie near the southern
extremity of the cultural zone, beyond which all is
savagery or barbarism. The much-discussed question of
their origin can scarcely be treated apart from that of all
the other pre-Columbian monuments, and other works of
the more or less civilised communities, which stretch from
this point in an unbroken iso-cultural line to the Colombian
uplands. They are associated, going northwards, chiefly
with the Bolivian "Aymaras" (properly Collas) and
the allied Peruvian Quichuas, of whom the Incas were
the dominant tribe, all these occupying the whole of the
Andean plateau as far north as Quito (Ecuador) ; the
nearly extinct Yuncas (Chimtis) of the present Peruvian
province of Trujillo ; the people of Ancon on the same
coast north of Lima, who, if not Quichuas, were at an
early date brought under Quichua influences ; lastly, the
Miiyscas {Chibchas) of the Cundinamarca plateau, Colombia,
who are quite distinct in race, speech, and general culture
from the Peruvians.
Excluding those of Ancon, who cannot in the present
connection be separated from the Quichuas, all these
peoples had, long before the advent of the Conquistadores,
made considerable progress in the arts and industries, as
well as in various social institutions, as is sufficiently
EARLY ETHICAL RELATIONS 49
evident from the fact that they must be spoken of as
nations in the strict sense of the term, and not merely
as a bare aggregate of tribes, like the Mongolo-Tui'ki
hordes of Central Asia fortuitously brought together by
some conquering Khans in vast but evanescent empires.
The empire of the Incas was marlced by great stability,
at least outwardly, and by a complete fusion of the
ethnical and social elements over wide areas, though not
everywhere. The same was, no doubt, true also of the
other political systems, such as those of the Aymaras and
Yuncas, which disappeared, not by internal disintegration,
but by the spread of the Incas' sway over the Cordillera
and Pacific seaboard, while the Muyscas, though torn
by civil strife, held together till overthrown by the
Spaniards.
Moreover, all these civilisations not only differed con-
siderably from the Maya, the Aztec, and others of the
northern continent, but also in many respects from each
other. Characteristic of Chimu were the so-called huacas,
huge sepulchral or other mounds, or truncated pyramids
of a type somewhat analogous to those of Mexico, whereas
the so-called mound of Ak-kapana at Tiahuanaco, which
had been compared with those of Yucatan, is now shown
to be a natural hill formerly crowned with buildings that
have since disappeared. So also the Peruvian temples
and other structures, as well as the great highways,
terraced slopes, irrigation and other works carried out
by the Incas, are of a different order from those of Central
America.
It is further to be noted that the Aztecs, and especially
the Mayas, had made considerable progress in the art of
pictorial writing. Many of their symbols are now believed
even to possess phonetic value, though still falling far
short of a true alphabetic system. But of all tliis
VOL. I E
50 COMPENDIUM OF GEOLiliAI'HY AND TltAVEL
no certain trace ^ has been i'ound in tlie South, where
even the Quichuas had no means of recording events,
whether of an astronomical or an historical order, except
by the so-called quippos or strings, a rude system of
mnemonics still in use in some of the rural districts, the
x^alues of which are determined by the length, colour,
Jvuots, loops, and general arrangement of the strings.
Everywhere navigation was in a rudimentary state,
the most advanced peoples being unacquainted with keeled
vessels, or indeed with any craft beyond canoes and a
kind of float or raft, on which a small sail might be
hoisted in the calm waters of the Pacific coastlands, but
useless for ordinary seafaring purposes. On the other
hand, the land- connections were such as to exclude the
suggestion of any large movements of invading hordes ;
nor were there any traditions or records of such move-
ments among the people on either side of the isthmus of
Panama, which had been reached only by one or two
straggling Aztec groups from Nicaragua. This is one of
the reasons why it is so ditticult to accept the tradition
that the founder of the Lambayeque dynasty in the Chimu
territory came with his followers from the ocean on rafts.
If to all these considerations be added the fact that the
Aztec, Muysca, and Quichua-Aymara idioms were all stock
languages with nothing in common except their general
polysynthetic character, the inference seems irresistible
that the cultured peoples north and south of the Panama
1 Mention is made by Molina (1570-84) and others of pictures in the
Inca country recording events, though none have been preserved. Some
autliorities think the carvings discovered in the Santa Maria Valley,
province Cataraarca, Argentina, constituted a writing .system, even with
[ihonetic characters, of Peruvian origin, but long extinct in the land of
its birth. Yet even so, no support would thereby be lent to Maya -Aztec
theories, for nobody pretends that such " inscri]itions" have anything
in coiinnon with the Central American systems.
EAKLV ETHICAL RELATIONS 51
region had for long ages remained practically isolated
from each other. At least no regular communications
had been established, no intercourse maintained beyond
that of casual travellers or other visitors, which might
suffice perhaps to account for such analogies as may be
detected, for instance, between the Aztec or Peruvian
pictorial art, as displayed in the decoration of the re-
spective fictile vases, textiles or metal work.
It follows that the main features of all these cultural
centres must have been independent local developments,
and this is the conclusion which the latest and most
careful observers have come to respecting the Tiahuanaco
monuments, the most wonderful and original of all.^
They were the work of the Aymara people, in whose
territory they were raised in times prior to the conquest
of the Titicaca basin by the Incas, who were consequently
not the builders of these vast megalithic structures. The
relations of the Incas to the conquered Aymaras will be
dealt with further on.
1 Stiibel and Ulile, Die Ituinenstdtte von Tiahuanaco, etc., Breslaii,
1893, a sumptuous work, wliicli deals exhaustively with the whole subject.
CHAPTEE III
LATER ETHNICAL AND HISTORIC RELATIONS
The Discovery — Exploration of the Seaboard — Inland Expeditions —
Orellana's A'^oyage down the Amazon — Relations of the Whites to
the Aborigines — Miscegenation — Settlement of Brazil — The Negro
Element — Mestizo Terminology — S|)anish and Portuguese Colonial
Administration — The Revolt — The Brazilian Empire and Republic
— The Spanish South-American States.
The Discovery — Exploration of the Seaboard
Somewhere about the year 1380 Chaucer wrote: —
" Him nedeth not his colour for to dien
With Brazil, ne with grain of Portingal."
Some now forgotten mystification has been caused by
this apparently prophetic mention of the chief region of
the southern continent, and in association too with the
name of Portugal, its future master, quite 120 years
before South America was sighted, and 170 years
before any part of it was known by the name of Brazil.
But the explanation is simple. The mention of Portugal
in this connection is merely a curious coincidence, while
the " Brazil " referred to by the poet is not a country
but a dyewood, which was so named from its red flame
colour,^ and was well known to the Portuguese and other
^ Cf. Frencli braise; Eng. brazier; Port, braza ; Ital. brasile, etc., all
from a Teutonic root preserved in the Anglo-Saxon ircesian.
LATER ETHNICAL AND HISTORICAL RELATIONS 53
seafaring nations in the fourteenth century. Soon after
the discovery a similar dye wood was found in abund-
ance on the present Brazilian coastlands, which were
thus named from it, and not the dyewood from the
country.
No part of the southern mainland was reached till
the year 1498, when Columbus visited the Orinoco delta
THE FIRST HOUSE ERECTED ON THE SPANI.SH MAIN, STILL EXISTING
AT CARTAGENA.
and circumnavigated the island of Trinidad, which was
so named by him in honour of the Trinity. He was
followed in 1499 by Peralonso Nifio and Cristobal
Guerra, who coasted the Guiana sealjoard for some dis-
tance \,-estwards, and by Hojeda with his famous pilot
Amerigo Vespucci, who completed the first rough survey
of the low-lying Venezuelan coastlands for 600 miles to
the Goajira Peninsula beyond the Maracaibo inlet. The
54 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
remainder of the northern seaboard was traced in 1500-1
1)}' Bastidas de Sevilla all the way to the Gulf of Darien
or Uraba, while Vicente Pinzon and Diego de Lepe
passing soutli wards reached the Amazon estuary, pene-
trating round the island of Marajo into what they
supposed was a great " fresh-water sea." Pushing still to
the south Pinzon, rounding Cape S. Eoque, easternmost
headland of the continent, penetrated into the southern
waters to Bahia, while Vespucci advanced in 1503 as far
as the little inlet of Cananea, memorable as the starting-
point of the first expedition to the interior, from which
not a soul returned alive. The exploration of the eastern
seaboard was completed as far as the Plate estuary in
1509 by Pinzon and Diaz de Solis. Eeturning in 1515,
Solis made a more thorough survey of this great inlet,
which was known as the Eio de Solis till 1528, when
Sebastian Cabot, at that time in the Spanish service,
findins that the Parana branch led towards the Peruvian
silver mines, renamed it the Eio de la Plata, i.e. the
" Silver Eiver."
By the line drawn by Pope Alexander VI. in 1493,
when he " sliced the world in two like an apple," assign-
incr the western half to Spain and the eastern to Portugal,
the latter power was very nearly excluded altogether from
the southern continent. The line about coincided with
the present meridian of 40° west of Greenwich, which
intersects South America near its easternmost extremity
not far from the S. Eoque headland. But the very next
year the parting line w^as, by the Treaty of Tordesillas,
shifted considerably to the west, so that when this region
was actually discovered the boundary was found by the
Spaniards to run from a little west of the Amazon estuary
southwards, and by the Portuguese to strike the mainland
still farther w^est (60' or 61° W. Gr.), so as to leave the
LAIEK ETHNICAL AND HISTOKICAL EELATIONS 55
wliole of Guiana to the Orinoco delta on their side.
The question never was and never could be settled,
the proposed meridian having to be drawn 370 leagues
west, not of any fixed point, but of an indefinable point
in the Cape A^erdes and Azores, which groups occupy wide
but far from identical areas in the Atlantic.
But in any case a considerable slice of the southern
mainland, however the treaty might be interpreted,
necessarily fell to the share of the Portuguese. Hence
it is all the more surprising that this rich " windfall "
remained unknown to them, and unvisited by their
navigators, till Pedro Alvarez Cabral, bound for the Cape
and the East, was driven by a storm westwards to the
Brazilian seaboard in the year 1500. Supposing the
point where he struck land to be an island, he named it
the Ilha da Santa Gruz^" Holy Eood Island," and gave
the title of Porto Seguro to the haven where he had
found refuge from the storm, and where he hoisted the
Portuguese flag in tlie name of King Emmanuel. The
" Harbour of Safety " still remains, while the imaginary
island with its very name became merged in the vast region
which, for the reason above stated, began about the middle
of the sixteenth century to be known as the land of
brazil-wood, or simply Brazil.
On the Pacific side the survey of the seaboard was
naturally delayed till it became known that here also
there was a seaboard, in others words, that America was
an island, and not a part of the Asiatic mainland, more
particularly of India, as persistently held Ity Columbus to
the last. The delusion was dispelled by two memorable
events — the actual discovery of the Pacific Ocean, first
sighted by Vasco Nunez de Balboa in 1513, and tlu^
opening of the inter-oceanic route by the voyage of
Magellan through the strait named from him in the
56 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
year 1520. Owing to the east- west trend of the isthmus
of Panama, Nunez, crossing from the Caribbean Sea to the
San Miguel inlet of the Gulf of Panama, looked out south -
vjards on the boundless expanse, which he, therefore,
called the " South Sea." Magellan, on the other hand,
gave the name of " Pacific " to what proved to be the
same oceanic basin, because he found himself in tranquil
waters after weathering the stormy Fuegian channel.
Since that time both expressions have been in constant
use, and although Magellan's " Pacific Ocean " prevails
amongst the nations of Eomance and English speech,
Xunez' " South Sea " holds its ground in Teutonic lands.
Even in English the expressions " South Cea Islands " and
" South Sea Islanders " are more in favour when speaking of
the countless Pacific insular groups and their inhabitants.
A beginning was made with the maritime explora-
tion of the Pacific side of the southern continent in 1517,
when Espinosa launched the first sailing vessel in
Panama Bay, although his first trip was made, not south-
wards to Colombia or Peru, but round to the Nicoya inlet
in Costa Pica. All the early voyages of discovery and
conquest started from the Isthmian region, and although
one of the ships detached by stress of weather from
Loaysa's squadron in 1526 actually sailed from Euegia to
Tehuantepec (Mexico), it stood so far out to sea that the
South American coast was not even sighted at any single
point. Four years before this event, Andagoya had crept
down the rugged Colombian seaboard to the mouth of a
little river " Biru," the very position or identity of
which appears to have never been determined. Yet
its name, transformed by the Spaniards to Pent, has
become associated with imperishable memories, and,
by a not uncommon geographical misconception, has
found a permanent " local habitation " as the designation
LATER ETHNICAL AND HISTOKICAL IJELATIONS 57
of one of the great political divisions of the southern
continent. The reports of nourishing empires and
boundless wealth, though not yet of El Dorado (" The
Man of Gold ") himself, brought back by Andagoya,
gave the first impulse to Pizarro's scheme of conquest,
which in fact began in 1524 with the formation of that
renowned syndicate the " Biru Company," which, like the
Eoman triumvirates, consisted of three partners — Pizarro,
Almagro, and Hernando de Luque.
Henceforth exploration and conquest go hand-in-hand
both in Colombia and Peru, so that the work of coast
survey need not here be followed in separate detail. It
is curious to note in this connection that, for a long time,
all geographical research was arrested at the Eio Maule,
southern limit of the Incas' territory, and of the first
military expeditions sent out in all directions by the
Conquistadores. Even the coast-line was left undeter-
mined till it was followed by Alonzo de Camargo from
south to north (Fuegia to Callao) in 1540, and in the
opposite direction by Sarmiento in 1579. The later
and more accurate surveys of the southern fjords and
archipelagoes were mostly carried out by Cook, Fitzroy,
and other officers of the British Admiralty, although the
terminal insular headland of Cape Horn (properly Hoorn)
was first rounded in 1616 by the Dutch navigator, the
name of. whose native town it bears. With him was
associated his fellow-countryman Jacob Lemaire, whose
name is also perpetuated in Lemaire Strait between
Fuegia proper and Staten Island.
Inland Expeditions — Early Voyages on the Amazons
Of the early inland expeditions, the most memorable
is that of Gonzalo Pizarro, younger brother of the con-
58 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
queror of Peru, who left Quito to discover the land of
cinnamon on Christmas day 15o9. His party descended
into the eastern forests, followed down the river Coca to
its junction with the Napo, and built a small vessel in
which to discover " the great river." Gonzalo sent his
lieutenant, Francisco Orellana, to reconnoitre, who basely
deserted his chief. Thereupon Gonzalo and his followers,
after suffering terrible hardships, returned to Quito, while
Orellana descended the great river and, reaching its
mouth, sailed out of it in August 1541, finally arriving
at the Spanish settlement of Culiagua. In one of the
encounters on the river between the Spaniards and the
natives, Orellana reported that he saw ten or twelve
women fighting in front of the Indians. The Spaniards
called them Amazons, and Father Carbajal, the historian
of the voyage, described the female warriors. His work
is lost, but the historian Herrera quoted from it, and the
river received the name of Amazons.
In 1560 a second expedition imder Pedro de Ursua
descended the river Amazons, but his followers mutinied
and murdered him, chose a desperate ruffian named Lope
de Aguirre as their leader, and completed the voyage.
It is a horrible story of rapine and cruelty, the mutineers
being finally defeated at I>urburata in Venezuela by the
royal troops.
In 1637 two monks descended the Amazons to its
mouth, and their arrival at Para induced the governor to
despatch a Portuguese expedition up the river, under the
command of Pedro de Texeira. The expedition was
accompanied by the Jesuit Cristoval de Acuiia, and
Texeira reached Quito in 1638. The Jesuit Father
observed everything on the way, noted down the names
of Indian tribes, their manners and customs, the names
of the rivers flowinsj into the Amazons, and the natural
LATER ETHNICAL AND HISTORICAL RELATIONS 59
productions of the country. Acuiia's valuable work on
the great river and the tribes on its banks was published
at Madrid in 1641. The first descents of the river
Amazons were thus made by Orellana in 1541, and
Aguirre in 1561, and the first ascent by Texeira in
1638, Acuiia being the first to publish a full de-
scription of the river and of the tribes inhabiting
its banks.
Relations of the Whites to the Aborigines
Very great contrasts are everywhere conspicuous in
the attitude of the white intruders towards the aborigines
in the northern and southern continents. The differences,
which must have a biding influence on the destinies of
mankind in the western hemisphere, if not in the whole
world, are not exclusively due to the various nationalities
of the European settlers, as is so generally assumed by
superficial or biassed observers. From tlie present con-
sideration the Guianas, with their feeble white (British,
Dutch, and French) population, may be excluded, as of no
account, while Central America, including Mexico, must
from this ethnical standpoint be transferred from the
northern to the southern continent. We shall then
have, for purposes of comparison, two sharply delimited
ethnological and linguistic areas, to which the convenient
if not quite accurate expressions " Anglo-Saxon " and
" Latin America " have Ijeen applied. Here the term
" Anglo-Saxon " is strained to cover, not only all the
settlers from the British Isles, but also all other European
immigrants (mainly of Teutonic stock), whose mother-
tongue either is or must eventually be English. On the
other hand, by " Latin America " is to be understood the
whole region, as above defined, in which languages of
60 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Latin origin — almost exclusively Spanish and Portuguese
—are dominant.
In this broad statement alone expression is already
given to fundamental differences. Thus in the north we
have but one language, English, which is not merely
" dominant," but practically the mother-tongue of the
whole population, the only important exception being the
French spoken by considerably over one million Franco-
Canadians. But the south is divided between two lin-
guistic domains, while the language of each is scarcely
anywhere the universal speech of all the inhabitants, but
only of the dominant political section. In support of
this statement it may suffice to mention the still wide
range of Aztec and Maya-Quiche in Central America, of
Quichua-Aymara in Peru and Bolivia, of Auca in South
Chile, and of Tupi-Guarani in Brazil, Paraguay and
Argentina, besides the continual spread of English on the
seaboard, and of English, Italian, German and even
Basque in the most progressive regions of Argentina,
Uruguay and Brazil (Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul).
Miscegenation
Behind these differences lies a deeper, to which in
fact they are due. If in the North English is or is
becoming the mother-tongue of all, it is because there
has been no fusion, or none to any serious extent, between
the natives and the whites, but an absolute displacement
of the former by the latter. At present there are
practically no free tribes in the United States outside of
Alaska, and but a few thousands in the Dominion, all
the rest having been swept into reservations and agencies,
where they have no power of expansion, that is, no
future.
LATEli ETHNICAL AND HISTORICAL RELATIONS 61
But in Latin America the relations are entirely
different. Unlike the English " Pilgrim Fathers " and
Virginian planters, the first Spaniards and Portuguese
came admittedly as adventurers, soldiers of fortune, and
treasure-seekers, unaccompanied by their womenkind and
unencumbered by children. Some few in commanding
positions returned for their families, and in the next
century women accompanied the emigrants in consider-
able numbers. Many of the first conquerors, however,
found it wiser for obvious reasons to settle down, and
found new families by alliance with the natives. Nor
could these natives be anywhere bodily displaced in the
cultural zones, which even after the wholesale massacres,
deportations, famines and other attendant horrors, remained
still far too thickly peopled to allow of such summary
processes as were possible amongst the scattered hunting
tribes of the northern prairies.
In South Argentina and Uruguay, the conditions were
not unlike those of the north, as seen by the many points
of resemblance between the Uruguayan Charruas and the
Pampas Indians on the one hand, and the Dakota and
Algonquian nomads on the other. The result also has
been the same — a clean sweep of Charruas and Pampas,
for none of whom was there even time to prepare reserva-
tions, amid the storm and stress of modern social and
industrial developments.
Settlement of Brazil
But the settlement of South Brazil, also a cultureless
region, took place in earlier and less feverish times, con-
sequently with quite different and, in some respects,
surprising results, by which the whole current of history
may be said to have been permanently influenced in
62 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
favour of the Portuguese rivals of the hitherto unchallenged
Spanish supremacy.
Commissioned by King John III. to open up these
southern districts, Martini Aftbnso de Souza founded in
1532 the station of Sao Vicente on the little coaBt-stream
to which he gave the same name, and, at the same time
" made an alliance with the Indians of the Carijo tribes
called Goyana and Piratiningana." Then we are told
that, some thirty years later, these colonists and their
half-caste descendants already formed a numerous and
energetic community, which sent out other settlers,
founded the cities of Santo -Andre and Sao-Paulo, and
" gradually spread over the continent." The population,
it is expressly stated, continued to increase " through the
alliance of the Europeans with the Indians ; while
their posterity, more active and enterprising than
their maternal ancestors, were called Mamelucos and
Curibocas." ^
Later they became known by other names, Vicentistas,
from the captaincy of Sao Vicente, and especially Pav.listas,
from the province of Sao Paulo, and these Paulistas soon
spread the fame and terror of their name over half the
continent. We shall meet them again, attacking aborigines,
Spaniards, and the Jesuit missions with indiscriminate
fury, opening up the mining districts, plunging fearlessly
into the Brazilian backwoods, clearing the land for fresh
settlements, pushing steadily forward, and extending the
frontiers of the Portuguese domain right up to the slopes
of the Cordillera. To the astonishing energy, daring, and
enterprising spirit of these hardy pioneers is mainly due
the fact that South America is at present partitioned, in
nearly equal proportions, between the two dominant Latin
peoples of Spanish and Portuguese speech.
1 M. lie Saint Adolphe, vol. ii. p. 600.
LATEK ETHNICAL AND HISTORICAL KELATIONS 63
The Negro Element
As in other parts of Latin America, great numbers of
the aborigines were captured by the Paulistas for the
mines and plantations, but everywhere witli much the
same results. After thousands and tens of thousands had
perished, without any adequate returns, they had to be
replaced by Negro labour, and thus a fresh ethnical
element was introduced into South as into North America.
The Africans were imported into Venezuela, the Guianas,
and especially the north-eastern provinces of Brazil
and the Peruvian coastlands, mainly from Angola, Upper
Guinea, and the other Portuguese possessions on the
opposite side of the Atlantic.
The new relations thus created again presented the
most marked contrasts in the Anglo -Saxon and Latin
worlds. From the first the contact between the Virginia
planters and the imported slaves was a one-sided affair,
and since the emancipation has virtually ceased altogether.
But in the south, and especially in Brazil, the blacks were
received almost as equals by their half-caste employers,
and in any case the only bar to their fusion in the
general population was their social status. Pace and
colour never counted for much, so that even before the
enfranchisement a straui of black blood was everywhere
perceptible amongst the settled comnninities of Bahia,
Ceara, Para, and surrounding provinces.
Thus it happens that while the whites have presei'ved
their racial purity in the Southern United States, they
have, at the same time, created a " Negro Question," to
be dealt with by future philanthropists and statesmen.
But there is no negro question in Latin America, where
all the ethnical elements have from the first tended to
be merged in a fresh division of mankind, which may
64 COMPENDIUM OF GKOGRArilY AND TRAVEL
eventually acquire a uniform character, but must long
continue to betray its diverse origins in the heterogeneous
nature of its physical and mental qualities.
Mestizo Terminology
Such strides has miscegenation made along the
Brazilian seaboard as far south as Bahia, that full-blood
families, whether white, black, or native, are here rather
the exception than the rule, at least in all the settled
communities. Amongst the urban populations, the ob-
server notices with amazement an endlessly diversified
series of transitional types, for which the rich local
nomenclature totally fails to find adequate expression.
The confusion and perplexity are greatly increased by
the different meanings attached in different parts of Latin
America to some of the terms of this bewildering nomen-
clature, as shown by the subjoined list of the more
important names in current use : —
Cabureto: Cross between Indian and Negress (Brazil).
Cafuso: Issue of Negro and Indian women (Brazil).
Ouriboco : At first a white and Indian cross, now applied to various
white, Inilian, and Negro crosses (Brazil).
Casco : Direct issue of Mulattos on both sides (South America).
CMno : Negro and Indian cross (Spanish America).
Cholo : Issue of Zambos (South America).
Creole: Generally a full -blood white in Spanish America and West
Indies; full-blood black (Brazil) ; the issue of whites and Mestizos
(Peru).
Maiaaluco : Any cross, but especially white and Indian (Brazil).
Mestizo: Any half-breed, white and Negro, but especially white and
Indian (Spanish America).
ihiJatto : Any white and black cross, properly in the first generation,
then all descendants of ilulattos.
Negro : Full-blood black, whether of African or American birth.
Octoroon: Issue of a Quadroon and white ; i.e. a white with a strain of
one-sixteenth black blood.
Pardo : Same as Mulatto (Brazil) ; any half-breed (Argentina).
LATER ETHNICAL AND HLSTOKICAL RELATIONS
65
Quadroo7i ^
^ . - \\ lute witli oue-fourth black blood.
Quarteroon j
Quinieroon : White with one-eighth black blood.
Tapanhuna : Negro and Indian cross (Brazil, local).
Tentc en el Ayrc : Half-breed with predominant white element (Spanish
America).
Xibaro : Same as Tatianlmna.
MESTIZOS OF QUINDIO.
Zambo: Any half-breed, but mostly Negro and Indian; in Peru and
West Indies Negro and Mulatto ; in St. Vincent the half-caste
Caribs.
Zambo Prcto : Issue of Negro and Zamba women (Spanish America).
The amalgam of all these elements must be regarded
in the nature of a compromise in process of completion,
but a compromise in which there would seem to have
been a lowering of the higher without a corresponding
VOL. L F
66 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
raising of the lower elements, except in a few instances,
notably the Paulistas, the Paraguayans, and perhaps some
of the Gauchos, developed under exceptionally ftivourable
circumstances.
Spanish and Portuguese Colonial Administration
The Spanish colonial system was framed in the
interests of the inhabitants quite as much as in those
of the metropolis. But its admitted failure was owing
to the local authorities, who generally disobeyed the
orders from the central government, with the twofold
object of gaining credit by sending home treasure, and
of consulting their own interests. In fact, the colonial
policy of all European nations was much the same before
the nineteenth century, and consisted of oppressive
monopolies and protective measures of all kinds, which
had the threefold aim of inflating the State revenues,
preventing the development of local industries that might
compete with those of the home country, and excluding
aliens from any share in the trade of the colonies. This
policy was carried to extreme lengths by Spain, and
when we read that all intercourse with the outer world
was visited with severe penalties, we feel how justified
is this summary description.
Nor did Portugal lag far behind, and so early as
1503 the Brazil wood, from which, as above seen, the
country took its name, was declared a Eoyal monopoly ;
in the next century various corporations leased from the
Crown the exclusive right of trading with Brazil, while
an extraordinary decree was issued in l701 forbidding
all traffic between the northern and southern provinces.
In 1715 the further development of the local rum
•iistilleries was arrested in the interest of the importers
LATER ETHNICAL AND HISTOlilCAL RELATIONS 67
of brandies from Portugal, and these prohibitive measures
culminated in 1785 with the suppression of all the
weaving industries, those only excepted which provided
the coarse cottons worn by the slaves.
Equally or even more disastrous was the ecclesiastical
regime, which, by the introduction of the Inquisition and
alliance with the civil power, maintained the outward
supremacy of the Eoman Church at the cost of true
religion, manly feeling, and intellectual progress. Even
material loss was caused by the expulsion or exclusion
of the enterprising Jews and " heretics," a loss poorly
compensated by the spread of a veneer of Christianity
amongst the aborigines gathered round the Jesuit missions
of the interior.
One result of the rigid patriarchal system introduced
at these missions was to make the natives somewhat
helpless in the struggle for existence after the suppression
of the Jesuits by Pope Clement XIV. in 1773. When
the missions were dispersed many of the congregations
were destroyed by the more vigorous uncivilised tribes,
and others relapsed into the wild state, while the
survivors have merged in the general half-caste popula-
tions, whose religion consists of a verbal profession of
misunderstood dogmatic teachings, blended with gross
superstitions and coarse outward observances, conducted
by a priesthood which was not distinguished by a high
moral tone.
The Revolt
After the successful proclamation of the rights of man
by the British North American colonists, revolution was
in the air. The feeling of restlessness was intensified
by the great upheaval in France, as well as by the
68 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
writings of Kousseau and the French encyclopedists.
But the opportunity did not come till the opening of
the nineteenth century, when legitimacy was overthrown
by Napoleon in the Iberian Peninsula.
The Brazilian Empire and Republic
Events now took a twofold course in the southern
continent, where the divided Hispano-Lusitanian rule
made itself at once felt. The House of Bragan^a had
always taken a special interest in its trans-Atlantic
possessions, not only conferring the title of " Principality "
on Brazil, but that of " Prince of Brazil " on the heir-
presumptive to the Crown itself. Possibly, despite the
shameful administrative abuses, a latent sentiment of
loyalty may have thus been fostered, as it certainly had
been in the principality of Wales by the like action of
our Edward I. But in any case when the Prince
Eegent, after the occupation of Portugal by the French,
took refuge in Brazil (1808), he was well received by
all classes, and the devotion of the people to this dynasty
was for a time strengthened by the wise policy which
made the Brazilian seaports free to all nations, and in 1815
changed the title of Principality to that of " Kingdom."
But when the founder of this first hereditary monarchy
in the New World returned to Lisbon in 1821, his
eldest son Dom Pedro, who had been appointed Prince
Eegent, found himself compelled by the current of events
to sever the connection with Portugal, and soon after
constituted Brazil an independent empire, himself assum-
ing the Imperial Purple in Eio de Janeiro on 12 th
October 1822. Thus was brought about the independency
of the " Greater Portugal " by the peaceful process of
segmentation, just as in our days the empire itself was
LATER ETHNICAL AND HISTORICAL RELATIONS 69
transformed to a Federal Eepublic, under the title of
The United States of Brazil, also by a bloodless revolution
(Xovember 1889).
The Spanish South American States
Apart from some mutterings and menaces in the
half-Spanish district of Eio Grande do Sul, it is noteworthy
that these happy solutions of high political problems
have at all times been followed by the maintenance of
peace and orderly government throughout the vast con-
tines of Empire and Eepublic. Herein the contrast is
complete between the Portuguese and the Spanish
domains. In the latter the wars of independence, fought
out bravely on both sides, have been followed almost
everywhere by far more disastrous fratricidal wars, by
incessant strife within each separate state, with an
expenditure of blood and treasure out of all proportion
to the interests involved.
The dreams of some of the revolutionary leaders to
replace the old Spanish vice-royalties by a united Spanish
South America, whether on the principle of federation
or otherwise, were quickly dispelled, and indeed shown to
be impracticable on many grounds that need not here be
discussed. The very lie of the land, mostly confined to
the Andean plateaux, and at that time almost destitute
of inter-communications, of itself excluded the idea of
any such political unity. Hence after the removal of the
fictitious bond of unity supplied by the suzerainty of
Spain, the whole region was, so to say, dissolved into its
primeval elements, and reconstituted as a sort of South
American "Heptarchy," in which the chief bonds of
union were and are the Spanish language, everywhere
the common speech of the ruling classes, and the
70 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TKAVEL
republican form of government, generally modelled on
that of North America.
Despite the political convulsions, which happily seem
to show symptoms of exhaustion, a considerable measure
of material progress has almost everywhere been made,
as seen in the marked increase of population, in the
spread of general comfort, the improvement of the com-
munications, the growth of trade, and the development of
the immense natural resources of the land. In some
places, notably South Brazil, Uruguay, and the central
states of Argentina, the progress in all these and other
respects has been prodigious.
All these regions, representing about 2,000,000
square miles, lie fairly within the temperate zone, and
are in every way the most suitable for European settle-
ment. Hence for many years a stream of emigration has
set steadily in this direction from the Spanish and French
Basque Provinces, from Italy, Germany, the British Isles,
and even Eussia, this contingency being chiefly Jews
driven into exile by the persecuting spirit still rampant in
that empire. Hitherto the several communities have kept
much apart, and as all are free to educate their children
in their own way, a long time must elapse before they
are merged in a homogeneous community of one speech,
inspired by a common national sentiment. From this
community are definitely excluded both the aboriginal
and the black elements. Consequently it must ultimately
constitute a compact mass of pure European stock,
reckoned by many millions, which cannot fail to exercise
a controlling, if not a dominant, influence over the
destinies of the southern continent.
Subjoined is a table of all the South American States,
with their respective areas, populations, capitals, and
other details.
LATER ETHNICAL AND HISTORICAL RELATIONS
Republic.
Area in
sq. 111.
Population.
Revenue.
Debt.
Capital.
Venezuela
594,000
2,323,000
£2,060,000
£7,940,000
Caracas.
(1891)
(1896)
(1897)
Colombia
505,000
4,000,000
£2,000,000
£4,744,000
Bogota.
(est. 1895)
(1897)
(1896)
Ecuador .
120,000
1,272,000
£886,000
(1896)
£1,500,000
(1896)
Quito.
Peru
461,000
2,622,000
£1,072,000
£32,530,000 1
Lima.
(1876)
(1896)
(1876)
Bolivia .
567,000
2,020,000
£300,000
£1,152,000
Sucre.
(1893)
(1897)
(1896)
Chile .
204,000
2,712,000
£3,600,000
(1898)
£20,000,000
(1897)
Santiago.
Argentina
1,319,000
3,955,000
£15,000,000
£80,000,000
Buenos Ayres.
(1895)
(1899)
(1899)
Uruguay .
72,000
819,000
£3,070,000
£23,700,000
Montevideo.
(est. 1896)
(1895)
(1896)
Paraguay
98,000
600,000
£1,000,000
£995,000
Asuncion.
(est. 1897)
(1897)
(1897)
Brazil
3,210,000
16,330,000
£31,316,000
£198,000,000
Rio de Janeiro.
(1890)
(1897)
(1896)
^ This debt was cancelled by the bond-holders in 1889, in exchange for
concessions to a body called the "Peruvian Corporation."
CHAPTEE IV
VENEZUELA
Extent — Boundaries — Disputed Frontiers — Physical Features — General
Relief — Northern Uplands — Sierra de Merida — Coast Range —
Cordillera de la Silla — The Southern Uplands : Sierras Parima and
Pacaraima — Earthquakes — Igneous Phenomena — The Venezuelan
Llanos — Scenery of the Llanos — Hydrography — Lake Maracaibo —
Lake of Valencia — The Orinoco Basin — The Delta — Orinoco Scenery
— Gulf of Paria — Climate — Flora — Fauna — Inhabitants— The
Aborigines — Europeans and Mestizos — Prospects of Immigrants —
Historic Retrospect — Topography — Chief Towns — Government —
Social Condition.
Extent — Boundaries — Disputed Frontiers
After the expulsion of the Spaniards the newly-formed
states set about determining their respective frontiers
on the uti possidetis principle of the Spanish government
in 1810. But a little consideration will show that
difficulties were inevitable, and were not solely due to the
greed or ambition of the rival republics. In fact they were
largely caused by the character of the territories which had
to be delimited. They comprised two distinct geographical
groups — the strictly lowland states of Argentina, Para-
guay, and Uruguay, and the highland states of Venezuela,
New Grenada (Colombia), Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and
Chile. But between the two groups there were no
well-marked natural frontiers, so tliat collisions and com-
plications became inevitable, when one group sought to
broaden their boundaries down the slopes to the plains,
while the other, or at least Argentina, endeavoured to
creep as far up the escarpments of the plateaux as possible.
VENEZUELA 7 3
Throughout the nineteenth century Venezuela has
had frontier difficulties with all her neighbours —
Colombia on the west, Brazil on the south, and England,
as heir to the western section of Dutch Guiana, on the
east. The last, by far the most serious, threatened for a
moment to cause a rupture between the two powers,
but was referred in 1896 to the Government of the
United States, at whose suggestion four arbitrators (two
for Great Britain and two for Venezuela), with a president,
were appointed to inquire into the whole question at issue,
the decision of the majority to be final. The point at
issue concerned a small but important strip of coastland
just east of the Orinoco delta, the surrender of which by
England would exclude British Guiana from all access by
land to the Lower Orinoco basin. From a paper on the
subject, contributed by Sir CI. Markham to the Geographi-
cal Journal for March 1896, it appears that England's
right to this district, watered by the Barama and Barima
coast-streams, is indefeasible on the solid grounds of history,
exploration, and effective occupation. Venezuela claimed
solely through Spain,^ which, as shown by the old maps
and other data, never at any time occupied the coastlands
east of the delta, these being described as " Caribana,"
that is, the independent territory of the Caribs. But
England claimed partly through the Dutch, who were in
alliance with these very Caribs ; partly through geographi-
cal research, especially that of Sir E. H. Schomburgk
(1835-45), whose frontier line includes the strip in
1 At least the absurd claim based on Pope Alexander's Bull was not
seriously entertained by the court. The original line of 1493, which
alone had Papal sanction, was superseded by that of 1494, which has never
been determined (see above). A less shadowy claim might have been based
by England on a map in the Spanish archives, dated 1591, with the legend
over an island in the delta: " Aqui estan los Ingleses," that is, "Here
are the Englisli."
74 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TIJAVEL
question, and could scarcely be seriously challenged.
Hence the Court of Arbitration, by its final award
(October 1899), npheld this line except in two places
— Barima Point with the lower course of the Barinia
river, which is assigned to Venezuela ; and farther
inland, where the boundary, instead of following the
Cuyuni river to its head, ascends its Wenamu tributary,
thus leaving the Cuyuni goldfiekls to Venezuela.
It is not without interest to note that certain docu-
jnents of the eighteenth century preserved in the archives
of the Capuchin Friars at Eome show the whole seaboard
between the Orinoco and the Essequibo in possession of
the Dutch.
Towards Colombia the frontier, referred for settlement
to Spain, was laid down in 1891 rather to the advantage
of the western republic, to which was left most of the
Goajira I'eninsula, besides the San Faustino district in
the Eio Zulia valley, and the left side of the Upper
Orinoco between the Meta and Guaviare affluents.
Farther south the line of demarcation coincides with the
Ptio Atabapo to about 20 miles above Yavita, beyond
which it runs due south across several other Orinoco
affluents to the Guainia headstream of the Pdo Negro,
which is then followed to the Brazilian frontier at
Cucahy. Here the line, as agreed to by treaty with
Brazil in 1859, runs east, north, and again east, to British
Guiana near Roraima, at first following the crest of the
divide between the Baria and Cauaburi tributaries of the
Ptio Neo-ro, and -coinciding farther east with the Sierra de
Parima, that is, the water-parting between the streams
flowing north to the Orinoco and through the Ptio Branco
south to the Amazon. These are, at all events to a large
extent, natural frontiers, which have the effect of leaving
nearly the whole of the Orinoco basin to Venezuela.
VENEZUELA
75
The coastlands from the Orinoco delta to the Goajmi
Peninsula, together with the adjacent islets of Cubagua,
Margarita, Tortuga, Orchilla, and Aves, form part of the
republic, which thus delimited comprises an area approxi-
mately estimated at nearly 600,000 square miles, or
rather more than one-sixth of Europe,^ with scarcely a
third of the population of Belgium. But Venezuela con-
sists for the must part of an almost uninhabited wilderness
of uplands and llanos (plains), which were but little
known beyond the settled districts before the explorations
of Dr. W. Sievers in 1885 and again in 1892-93. The
extremely irregular distribution of the population is
shown in the subjoined table of the states and territories
constituting the Federal Kepublic of Venezuela : —
States : —
Area ill sq. m.
Population
(1S91).
ilii-anda
33,696
484,509
Carabobo
2,984
198,021
Bermudez
32,243
300,597
Zamora . . • .
25,212
246,676
Lara
9,296
246,760
Los Andes
14,719
336,146
Falcon and Zulia .
36,212
224,566
Bolivar .
88,701
50,289
Federal District
45
89,133
TERPaTORIES :
Goajira .
3,608
65,990
Alto Orinoco .
119,780\
45,197
Amazonas
90, 928 J
Colon .
166
129
Yuruari
81,123
22,392
Caura .
22,564
—
Armisticio
7,046
—
Delta .
25,347
7,222
Total
593,943
2,323,-527
1 This, however, includes the whole of the recently disputed territories
about the Orinoco delta, nearly 50,000 square miles altogether.
76 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Of this scanty population, which, however, shows an
increase of about 250,000 over that of the census for
1881, as many as 326,000 were returned as full-blood
Indians, and of these 66,000 were still absolutely inde-
pendent, 20,000 reduced, but living in the tribal state,
and 240,000 civilised, that is, occupying permanent
settlements like the general population, but still speaking
their original mother- tongues, chiefly dialects of the
Barre, Carib, and Arawak stock languages. Apart from
a small but unknown percentage of pure white descent,
the rest of the inhabitants may be broadly described as
more or less civilised but turlnilent Hispano-American
Mestizos of Spanish speech. There is, however, a strain
of black blood perceptible, especially in the seaports, due
to the 50,000 Negroes and Mulattos emancipated in
1830, and since then absorbed in the general population.
Physical Features — General Reliet
Were the north equatorial section of the continent
again flooded to a depth of a few hundred feet by the
old inland sea, the general configuration of the Venezuelan
region would stand out in bold relief. The marine
waters, covering about 200,000 square miles of the
present Orinoco basin, would be enclosed on the west and
north by a mountain system rooted in the Colombian
Andes, and sweeping in a gentle curve round to its
eastern extremity at the island of Trinidad. This
system, which consists, like the Andes generally, of a
coast range — the Sierra de Mar, and an inland range —
the Sierra de Merida, with its eastern extensions — would
be seen projecting in a continuous or nearly unbroken
line between the Caribbean and the Inland Sea, while
the latter would encircle towards the south-east another
VENEZUELA 77
upland region extending eastwards through the Guianas
to the Atlantic.
These uplands, like those of Brazil, from which they are
now separated by the Amazon valley, but with which
they would appear to be geologically connected, comprise
within Venezuelan territory the Sierra de Parima (Parime),
Pacaraima, and other ridges and plateaux of very irregular
outline, but forming a complete divide between the Lower
Amazon and Orinoco basins, as the northern system does
between the Orinoco and the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela
is thus seen to consist of three distinct geographical
regions, whose respective areas may be approximately
estimated as under : —
Ai-ea in sq. miles.
Central lowlands, i.e., the Orinoco llanos or plains in
their widest extent 300,000
Northern uplands : coast and inland ranges . , . 100,000
South-eastern uplands ....... 190,000
Total . . .590.000
Northern Uplands — Sierra de Merida — Coast Range
Hitherto the northern system has been commonly
regarded as an eastern extension of the Cordillera de los
Andes, to which at the southern extremity of the conti-
nent would correspond another eastern but submarine
extension running from Fuegia to South Georgia. But
all such geographical parallelisms, so much in favour with
the ancients, have generally had to yield to modern
scientific inquiry, and Dr. Sievers now contests the
views of the older geologists regarding the homogeneous
Andean character of the north Venezuelan system taken
as a whole. It is argued with much force that the term
Andes should be restricted, as it is in popular use, to the
Sierra de Merida, which properly terminates eastwards
78 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND 1 RAVEL
at a pass 1190 feet high leading from the basin of the
Yaracui coast-stream to that of the Cojedes, which drains
to the Orinoco through the Eios Portnguesa and Apure.
This gap would appear to separate two absolutely distinct
orographic systems — that of the Cordillera to the west,
and to the east the " Carib Mountains," that is, the coast
range, which is much older (gneiss, mica-schists and
metamorphic rocks) and belongs rather to the now mostly
submerged or denuded chains of the Antilles. Neverthe-
less it cannot be denied that from the purely geographical
point of view the coast range forms a regular extension
of the Colombian Andes.
Of all the Venezuelan ranges the Sierra de Mericla is
by far tlie most elevated. It alone claims the title of
Nevada, " snowy," thanks to four or five of its peaks
which rise above the snow-line. Such are the Concha
and Coluna, south-east of Merida, both 15,-120 feet high,
while Concha boasts even of a little glacier, which sup-
plies Merida with ice. As everywhere in the Andes, the
Merida highlands develop two or more parallel ridges,
connected by transverse chains of older formation —
crystalline rocks and schists of great age. The upland
plateaux enclosed by these lofty ramparts, and standing over
11,000 feet above sea-level, take the name oi parimos —
bleak, treeless plains, swept by keen blasts or wrapped in
frozen vapour, and generally presenting an Arctic climate
within a few degrees of the equator. Towards the north
the steep cretaceous slopes fall abruptly down to the
narrow strip of woodland separating them from the
Maracaibo lagoon, and here a distinct divide is formed
between the torrents rushing down to the lake and the
streams flowing with a less rapid course to the Apure
affluent of the Orinoco.
VENEZUELA 79
Cordillera de la Silla
East of the Merida highlands follows the Cordillera
de la Silla, the " Saddle Eange," which terminates some-
what abruptly at Cape Codera. Like some sections of
the Peruvian Andes, the Silla presents exceedingly steep
rocky walls to the sea, leaving no beach or inlet except
the little haven of Guaira, and almost everywhere rising
abruptly from the marine depths to a mean altitude of
about 5000 feet. The almost vertical sides oi Naiguata,
the culminating peak (9130 feet), were for the first time
scaled by Spence and Ernest in 1874. The Silla, which
gives its name to the system, is only about 370 feet
lower ; yet it was near this peak that the ditticult track
formerly led over the range from Caracas on the southern
slope down to the port of Guaira.
Beyond the Silla the Sierra de Mar is continued
through the much less elevated Cumana (Cariaco) and
Paria ranges to its termination at the Gulf of Paria
over against Trinidad, which undoubtedly belongs to the
same system. The Paria section, which culminates in a
peak 3510 feet high, runs for a distance of 170 miles
between the Paria and Cariaco inlets, and is entirely of
igneous origin. It has no apparent connection with the
rest of the system, and its existence may be associated
with the formation of the Gulf of Cariaco, which was due
to a submarine convulsion said to have occurred not long
before the discovery.
The Southern Uplands : Sierras Parima and Pacaraima
Although the southern uplands cover a far more
extensive space, they nowhere attain the altitude of the
northern highlands ; nor do they anywhere develop such
80 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
sharply defined mountain ranges. To the whole system
is commonly extended the expression Sierra Parima, in
reference to the mythical Lake Parima, that is " Great
Water," where dwelt El Dorado in a golden palace glitter-
ing with preciovis stones, and whither Pialeigh and so
many other adventurers went in quest of his fabulous
treasures. But the sierra might seem to be almost as
mythical as the lake. The whole region, which still
awaits careful exploration, would seem to have the
aspect of a vast turtle-back plateau, sloping north to the
(Jrinoco and south to the Amazon, traversed by no great
mountain ranges anywhere, but crossed in various direc-
tions by short ridges, and presenting steep escarpments
rather than true ranges towards the Amazonian plains.
These escarpments, that is, the Sierra Parima, with its
eastern extension the Sierra Pacaraima, were not even
visited by the Commission appointed to lay down the
Brazilo - Venezuelan frontier line along their crest in
1880-83. They appear to consist of a granite core
underlying old sandstone strata, and even their highest
peaks probably fall below 6500 feet, while those about
the sources of the Orinoco affluents are estimated by
Chaffanjon at not more than 4000 or 4500 feet. The
Sierra de Mato, one of the northern ridges running close
to the right bank of the Orinoco, rises in a peak measured
by Codazzi to a height of 6170 feet, and in its upper
course the main stream is dominated by the Ccrro Duida
(8120 feet), a most conspicuous landmark, visible for a
great distance up and down the river and indicating the
point where the Cassiquiare branches off towards the
Amazon basin. But this pyramidal bluff is exceeded by
the neighbouring Sierra Maraguaca (8230 feet), which
was long regarded as the culminating point of the south-
east Venezuelan uplands. But this honour must now be
VENEZUELA 8 1
transferred to Mount Icutu, highest dome of the lofty
Sierra Guamapi, which was first approached in 1897 by
Major Stanley Paterson/ and estimated by him at 11,000
feet. Icutu, which with its rapidly sloping sides and
bulging summit, presents somewhat the aspect of a
uitjantic toad-stool, stands near the source of the Ciichivero,
a small stream flowing north to the right bank of the
Orinoco below the Apure contluence.
Earthquakes — Igneous Phenomena
Although Venezuela is literally an unstable land,
subject to frequent and violent underground disturbances,
one of which destroyed Caracas with 12,000 of its
inhabitants in 1812, there is not a single active volcano
in the whole region. But indications of former eruptions
are seen in the lavas and scoriae of San Juan de los
Morros on the southern slope of the Sierra de Mar. At
one time it was supposed that burning mountains existed
in many places. But the flickering flames that gave rise
to the belief are now known to be in no way connected
with such igneous displays. They are, however, a suffi-
ciently remarkable phenomenon of the class popularly
known as will-o'-the-wisps, of more frequent occurrence
and more widely diffused than in any other part of the
world. These curious but harmless inflammable vapours
are seen dancing about at night in every part of the
country, on lowlands and uplands alike, on the flanks of
Duida and of Cuchimano near Cumana, as well as on the
marshy banks of the Catatumbo and other streams flow-
ing to Lake Maracaibo. On the llanos they flare up
amid the tall grasses without burning them, and they
probably indicate the presence of immense stores of gases
"- Geo(jr. Jour. (January 1899), p. 39 sq.
VOL. I. G
82 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
and naphtha reserved for future use. At least the
j^tchy substances oozing up in the Orinoco delta and
elsewhere seem to he associated with the famous bi-
tuminous lake of Trinidad, and to point like it to vast
underground reservoirs of asphalt.
The Venezuelan Llanos
From the southern slopes of the northern uplands the
central plains stretch away to the Guiana forest tracts
beyond the Orinoco delta, and occupy the whole region
between the Sierra de Merida and the northern slopes of
the Parima uplands. Following the trend of the old
marine basin, they sweep like a great arm of the sea
round the western escarpments of these heights, and
here merge southwards in the Amazonian plains. The
llanos are thus largely conterminous with the lower level
of the Orinoco basin, although the expression is generally
restricted to the region bounded by the left bank of that
river. Even in this limited sense, they are far from corre-
sponding everywhere with the popular idea of a vast
level or slightly undulating treeless or grassy plain, like
the North American prairies or the Argentine pampas.
Even after escaping from the higher uplands, tlie Apure,
]\Ieta, Yichada, Guaviare, and other north - western
affluents of the Orinoco, have a fairly rapid course,
obstructed in some places by rapids, thus showing a
gradual rise from the bed of the main stream towards the
Colombian and Venezuelan highlands. Tliis rise above the
former level of the old marine basin represents a portion
of the sedimentary matter washed down by the running
waters, and may therefore be regarded as the talus of
the encirling Cordilleras. Hence the local expressions
llanos altos, " upper plains," and llanos bajos, " lower
VENEZUELA 83
plains," the latter representing the old bed of the inland
sea, and still standing at a mean elevation of scarcely more
than 300 feet above its level. Everywhere the llanos
altos present an agreeably diversified aspect, with much
broken ground, watered by the upper courses of the
Orinoco affluents, and clothed in some districts with a rich
tropical vegetation.
The route followed by Kamon Paez from Maracay to
the Apure valley lay at first through sugar-cane, indigo,
and tobacco fields, varied by extensive cacao plantations
flourishing beneath the shade of the coral-tree {Erytlirina).
The wooded tracts possess a great wealth of valuable
trees, such as the Vera {Lignum vitm), so hard that it turns
the edge of the sharpest tools ; the Guayacan, suitable
for carving and cabinet-work ; the beautiful Alcornoquc,
which offers a grateful shade to the cattle during the
summer heats ; and the Brazil-wood of commerce, as
abundant here as in the reg-ion to which it Qrives its name,
Scenery of the Llanos
But even the llanos properly so called have their
attractions. From the higher slopes a prospect is com-
manded of one of the grandest scenes in nature. At
your feet lies a lovely expanse of meadow, fresh and
smooth as the best-trimmed lawn, with troops of horses
and countless herds of cattle dispersed over the plains.
Here and there the eye alights on glittering pools or
lakelets left by the last rains, and now alive with an
immense variety of aquatic birds. As far as the gaze
can reach, the undulating grassy plain appears like a
shoreless ocean petrified after a storm. No language
could convey a true picture of the varied beauties of the
scene — the harmonious effects of lig-ht and shade ; the
04 COMPENDIUM OF CxEOCxEAPHY AND TRAVEL
l)lending of the various green, blue, and purple tints flit-
ting ill the sunlight over the vast panorama ; the stately
palms gracefully fanning the glowing atmosphere, with
their majestic crowns of broad and shining foliage.
Conspicuous especially is the CojJeniicia tectorum, as
valuable as it is beautiful, with as many names as the
uses to which it is put. To the stock-breeders and
settlers it is known as the palma de cobija, the " thatch
palm," because its leaves serve to thatch their farmsteads ;
it is the palma de sombrero, the " hat palm " of the straw-
hat makers ; and by wayfarers it is termed the ^;(x/?;2a
de eihanico, the " fan-palm," being so used by them against
the flies during their wanderings over the steppe. Still
more beautiful is the Saman, a species of mimosa, which
grows profusely along the banks of the Apure and other
streams, spreading its delicate feathery foliage aloft, like
a dainty parasol. Extensive tracts are overgrown with
this graceful tree, which we are told might supply suffi-
cient material for the reconstruction of all the fleets of
the world.
More characteristic of the llanos proper are the grasses,
often more curious than valuable. Such is the worthless
(jamelote, tall and sharp as a Toledo blade, but useless
even as fodder. In the Apure district is seen the singu-
lar phenomenon of the mcdanos or ranges of low dunes,
formed by the loose sand drifting before the wind over
the boundless plain. They are continually shifting their
form, rising at one time well above the surface, at
another dispersed as tine dust over the steppe. But in
one district, where they have been bound fast by the
roots of the gamelote, they have been transformed to a
low range of permanent hills the so-called Medanos del
San Martin. Some of the grasses are soft and pliable as
silk, and it is owing to their nutritious qualities that the
VENEZUELA 8 5
alluvial plains of the Apure and its tributaries have be-
come so noted for stock-breeding.
Hydrography — Lake Maracaibo
On the rock-bound north coast there is no room for
the development of fluvial basins. Hence between the
Goajira Peninsula and the Gulf of Paria there is only
one navigable watercourse — the Catatumbo — all the rest
being mere torrents or insignificant coast-streams, which
find their way in independent channels to Lake Maracaibo
and the Carribean Sea. From the precipitous slopes of
the encircling Cordilleras Maracaibo receives several
such streams, whose deposits are slowly filling in this
extensive but shallow inlet. The most copious is the
Catatumbo, which, besides the Orinoco, is the only river
in Venezuela used for navigation. The main channel
with its Zulia affluent is accessible to small steamers
throughout the year ; but its basin belongs in part only
to Venezeula, its head-waters having their source in the
Santander uplands, Colombia. In fact, it is through
its upper valley that the Colombians gain access to
Maracaibo.
This marine inlet, the largest in the southern con-
tinent, is rather in the nature of a lake or lagoon than of
a gulf, being so far landlocked that the tides are scarcely
felt inside the bar. A little way beyond this bar its
waters are quite fresh, the supplies it receives from the
surrounding streams being greatly in excess of the marine
currents. The " Sack of Venezuela," as it is called, has
a circuit of 3 7 miles, with an area of 9000 square miles,
and an extreme depth of 500 feet, but shoaling rapidly
towards the Mochila or inner basin.
The outer and much larger basin was formerly known
86 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
as the Gulf of ^'enice, a name connected with that of
the republic itself. When Hojeda and Vespucci first
navigated its waters in 1499 they noticed on its shelving
margin one of those aquatic stations, or groups of pile
dwellings, which are met so frequently in similar localities
in Malaysia, New Guinea, and other parts of the world.
The waterways between the rows of houses, with the
" gondolas " (canoes) moored to tlie posts, were so sugges-
tive of Venice that the place was named Venezuela,
" little Venice," while the inlet for a time bore the name
of Venice itself. From this aquatic station the sonorous
term Venezuela spread to the whole region. The case
is exactly parallel to that of Brunei, where are also to
be seen such pile-dwellings, and the name of which, since
the first visit of ^Magellan's associate Pigafetta, has been
extended to the whole island of Borneo.
Lake of Valencia
Besides the Maracaibo lagoon Venezuela possesses
at least one real fresh-water basin — the Lake of Valencia,
which fills a great part of the rich Aragua valley, and is
one of the most remarkable sheets of water in the world.
Although it seems completely encircled by the coast and
inland ranges. Lake Tacarigua, as it is called by the
natives, has two different outlets on the west side close to
the city of Valencia. By one of these emissaries it has
occasionally sent its overflow through the Trincheras
northwards to the Agua Caliente affluent of the Caribbean
Sea, and by the other it has communicated several times
through the Paito southwards with the Pao tributary of
the Orinoco. According to the oscillations of level, the
Caiio Camburi, that is, the southern emissary, has thus
been alternately an affluent and an effluent of this erratic
A'ENEZUELA 8?
.lacustrine basin. Its waters, which iiave become slightly
brackish, and have an extreme depth of 300 feet, had
been steadily subsiding for some years before 1882 ; but
since that time the lake appears to have again acquired
some measure of stability, and is even said to be now
rising to its former high level, when it discharged to the
Orinoco.
The Orinoco Basin
The Orinoco is one of the great rivers of the world,
being exceeded in volume only by the Amazon and
Parana in South America, and elsewhere by the Missis-
sippi, St. Lawrence, Congo, Niger, Yang-tse, and Brahma-
putra. But several others surpass it in length, for
although it draws contributions from the eastern slopes
of the Colombian Cordillera, its course lies nearly ten
degrees north of the equator, where the width of the
continent is greatly contracted by the rapidly receding
contour-line of the Guianas. Thus the Orinoco delta
stands about twelve degrees of longitude west of the
Amazon estuary, which to some extent is a measure of
the different lengths of the two main streams.
But the farthest head-waters of the Orinoco, or
Orinucu, the form given by its first explorer, Diego de
Ordaz in 1531, lie not in the Colombian Cordillera nor
in the Sierra de Merida, but in the Parima uplands,
where its source was discovered by Chaffanjon in a rivulet
above the Salto de los Franceses, at no great distance from
the Cassiquiare confluence. The channel of this stream,
which forms the connecting link between the Amazon
and Orinoco systems, is continued southwards through
another stream, which again ramifies into the Baria and
Canaburi, both affluents of the Eio Negro. At the junc-
tion of the Cassiquiare, which sends only about a third
88 COMI'EXDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
of its current to the Orinoco, the bed of the main stream
stands not more than 920 feet above sea-level. Thus
the al:»solute fall from this point to the delta, a distance
of about 1300 miles, is less than 9 inches per mile,
so that by the removal of a few obstructions here and
there the main stream, with many of its ramifications,
would be accessible for liglit craft to the foot of the
Cordillera, and through the Cassiquiare to the heart of
the continent. Yet these magnificent inland waters are
at present (1900) utilised in a regular way only by a
single steamer of the Eoyal Mail Steamship Company,
plying once a fortnight between Trinidad and Ciudad
Bolivar. So gentle is the current to this point that the
voyage up-stream takes only six hours more than the
return trip — 36 and 30 hours respectively. During the
rainy season, from May to November, smaller steamers
continue the service from Bolivar to Nutrias on the
Middle Apure. But beyond Caicara, at the Apure con-
fluence, there is no regular navigation at all, although
steamers ascend as occasion requires to various stations
below the Apure rapids.
Beyond the Cassiquiare junction the main stream,
keeping close to the Parima escarpments and in some
places even forcing its way through the projecting spurs,
trends north by west, north, and north by east to the
Apure confluence, where it bends round to the east for
the rest of its course to the delta. In the section
between the Cassiquiare and the Apure it receives only
one notable contribution — the Ventuari — from the
Parima uplands. But on its left bank it is joined by
several important affluents, such as the Guainia, the
Guaviare, Meta, and Arauca, all descending from the
Colombian Cordillera, and traversing the llanos in nearly
parallel south-easterly valleys. The Guaviare, which is
VENEZUELA 8 9
navigable for small steamers for about 600 miles to the
Ari-Ari ford, rolls down a volume of no less than 11 2,0 00
cubic feet per second during the floods.
Between the Guaviare and Meta confluences are
developed the romantic Maypures and the Atures rapids,
which are the only serious obstructions of this nature
throughout the whole course of the main stream, and are
caused, not by any general rise in the fluvial valley, but
only by the projecting Parima heights, which are here
and there cut right through instead of being turned by
a bend to the west. The Atures rapids, about 6 miles
long with a total fall of 30 feet, are indicated from a
distance by two notable bluffs, the Cerro Pintado, " Painted
Hill," and the Cerro de las Muertos, "Dead Men's Hill," the
former so called from the rude figures with which they
are covered, the latter from the sepulchral chambers in
its cavernous recesses. Jointly the two cataracts repre-
sent a total fall of not more than 70 feet, but present
an insurmountable obstacle to the navigation even at
high water.
The Meta, which debouches below the Ature falls, is
even a more important tributary than the Guaviare.
Drawing its supplies through numerous branches from
the Cordillera on the upper llanos, it expands at times to
a width of nearly a mile, and would be navigable for
large vessels but for the sandbanks obstructing the
channel at various points. As it is, steamers drawing
8 or 10 feet ascend about a third of its course during
the floods, when it discharges a volume estimated at
160,000 cubic feet per second.
Beyond the Arauca follows the Apure, the typical river
of the llanos, joining from the west and consequently
continuing the main axis of the Orinoco valley from its
delta right up to the Colombian Andes. Hence, in a
90 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAYEL
hydrograpliic sense, many geographers have regarded the
Apure as the true upper course of the Orinoco. Even
from the standpoint of navigable length, if not of volume,
it might still claim to hold this position, because the
navigation of the main stream is arrested at the Atures
rapids, whereas no falls or other obstructions interrupt
the placid course of the Apure below the confluence of
its two main branches — the Sarare and Uribante. Its
drainage area extends up the slopes both of the Colombian
and Venezuelan Andes, and develops a vast inland delta
which mingles its lateral channels with the neighbouring
Arauca, and during the floods covers a space 6 or 7
miles in extent.
About midway between this and the marine delta, the
old town of Angostura, the " Narrows," now renamed
Ciudad Bolivar in honour of the " Liberator," marks the
head of the tidal waters at a distance of 260 miles from
the sea. At this point the mean discharge per second
is estimated by Orton at 500,000 cubic feet, while the
depth of the lower reaches in many places exceeds 180
feet. At the Xarrows the annual rise varies from 40 to
50 feet, beginning about the middle of April and con-
tinuing till November, when the plains are often again
transformed to a great inland sea 100 or 120 miles in
extent. Along these periodically flooded banks the
natives live in pile-dwellings of two stories, one occupied
at low water, the other during the inundations.
The Delta
As it approaches the sea the main current continues
its easterly course in a straight line to Barima Point,
without throwing off any important liranches to the right,
that is, to the conterminous district of British Guiana, or
VENEZUELA 91
higher up. Thus the whole of the deltaic region is
developed toward the north, and in fact, with a front of
about 430 miles, occupies all the space between the Boca
de iSTavios, " Ships' Mouth," and the Gulf of Paria. It is
divided into the Lower or Southern, and Upper or Northern
Delta, by the Macaros, another navigable Branch, which
presents the shortest route from Trinidad to the interior,
and is consequently utilised by the steamers plying
between Port of Spain and Ciudad Bolivar. The delta
has a total area of 7000 square miles, and is intersected
by as many as fifty channels flowing directly to the sea ;
but of these many frequently shift their beds, and not more
than seven are permanently navigable by large vessels.
Subjoined are approximate estimates of the chief
features of the Orinoco basin, viewed as a whole : —
Drainage area ....
Length .....
Length of navigable waters
Discharge per second at low water
, , , , , ) at high water
Mean discharge per second
Mean annual rainfall
364,000 sq. miles.
1,450 miles.
4,300 ,,
238,000 cubic feet.
875,000 ,, ,,
500,000 ,,
76 inches.
Orinoco Scenery
The banks of the Orinoco are fringed along its many
windings by magnificent forest trees, which project their
shadows far across the stream on both sides. During
the rainy season its waters rise above the level of these
woodlands, covering the trunks of the trees, and often
exposing their upper roots after subsidence. Amid the
rich and varied foliage are everywhere conspicuous the
thick and leathery leaves of such plants as flourish only
beneath the bright skies of the tropical world, where the
glorious crowns of leafage never lose that freshness and
92 COMPENDIUM OF CxEOGEAPHY AND TPiAVP:L
luxuriance which is assumed by northern woodlands only
in the lovely season of early spring. Hence the darker
tones, blending with the gleams of flitting sunshine,
develop a play of colour effects on which the eye never
wearies to gaze. Countless creepers twine themselves
round the stems and branches of the trees, forming here
and there dense masses of foliage, impenetrable to the
keenest sight and often bathed in the loveliest and most
dazzling colours. In many places the observer lights
upon natural bowers and arboreal groupings displaying a
wealth of beauty, and even a symmetry, which could
scarcely be imitated by the most consummate art.
Gulf of Paria
On entering the sea the fluvial currents are caught up
by the marine current, which here sets steadily from the
south-east to the north-west, in the direction of the
" Serpent's Mouth," between the delta and Trinidad.
But this dangerous passage is too narrow and too shallow
to admit the whole stream, which here ramifies round
Trinidad. The inner branch, further swollen by the
western channels of the delta, penetrates into the Gulf of
Paria, which thus serves as a receptacle for much of the
alluvial matter carried seawards by the Orinoco. Some
of the silt is no doubt again dispersed through the
" Dragon's Mouth," as the northern passage is called ; but
enougtx remains to gradually raise the bed of the gulf and
thus restore Trinidad to the mainland, from which it was
torn by some igneous disturbance at a remote period.
Climate
As in Mexico and other parts of Spanish America,
the climates in Venezuela are largely disposed in vertical
VENEZUELA 93
order. The hot zone, ascending from sea -level to an
altitude of about 2300 feet, has a mean temperature of
77° Falir., and may on the whole be described as not
unhealthy. Above this the temperate zone, with an
average temperature of about 65°, ranges to a height of
6600 feet, and is one of the most delightful regions in
the world — a perfect Eden of natural loveliness, where
are combined all the outward elements conducive to
health and an agreeable existence. Here the coldest
months are December and January, when the thermometer
seldom falls below 59°, while in April and May, which
are the hottest months, it scarcely ever rises above 77°.
In the cold zone are comprised all the highland
districts from 6600 feet upwards. In the Sierra de
]\Ierida it penetrates at some points into the region of
perpetual snow. The almost Arctic character of the
elevated parimos in these highlands has already been
described. Here the mean annual temperature is little
more than 5° or 6° above freezing-point, and the altitude
of 14,600 feet marks the upper limit of vegetation, which
ranges so nmch higher in the western Cordilleras.
Flora
In Venezuela the vegetable kingdom is exceptionally
rich and varied. It constitutes at present the chief
natural resource of the country, its products forming
almost the only staple of trade, while many of the species
are extensively cultivated.
Foremost amongst these is the coffee plant, which has
succeeded in so many parts of the New World, and con-
stitutes the chief source of wealth in Venezuela. The
best coffee grows in the temperate districts, and more
especially in those tracts that are exposed to frequent early
94 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
mists. In the warmer lands it nourishes Lest beneath
the shade of large trees, and it is noteworthy that it is
always cultivated in this way in the Caffa uplands, where
the plant is indigenous. In the fourth or iifth year it
yields its first crop, which is gathered in October. The
berries, resembling little red cherries, have their outer
pulpy part first removed by a special apparatus, and are
then left for a short time to decay, after which tliey are
dried in large paved enclosures. They are afterwards
passed on to the trilla, where, either by a stamping or
rolling process, they are freed from their parchment-like
inner husks. From the trilla they pass to the venteador,
where they are subjected to a final cleansing operation.
In 1898 the area under coffee was estimated at nearly
200,000 acres, which yielded about 50,000 tons for
exportation.
Other important vegetable products are cacao {Thco-
hroma cacao), which thrives best in the hot low -lying
districts, and needs very little attention on the part of
the growers. The finest quality comes from the planta-
tions of Chuao, which are owned by the University of
Caracas, and produce a yearly crop of about 1300 lbs.,
while the whole State yields over 70,000 lbs. The
natural home of the cacao-tree is in the great virgin
forests of the Amazon, where it still grows wild in great
profusion. It belongs to that class of plants in which
the flowers and fruit have the singular property of
sprouting directly from the woody stem and branches.
Of sugars the Tahiti cane {Saccharum officinaimm) is
the variety most widely cultivated. The ripe cane is at
first crushed between iron rollers, the juice flowing
through pipes into a large reservoir. From this it is
drawn off into iron caldrons, and boiled up to a certain
degree, the scum being removed and the fluid otherwise
VENEZUELA 95
cbriiied. It is then poured into wooden moulds, where
it gradually hardens. One of the tinest kinds of cotton,
known as the South Sea Island variety, has been success-
fully cultivated in the district of Lake Valencia and in
several other localities. But the total yield is inconsider-
able, and appears to be falling off. Indigo also, formerly
cultivated to some extent, has been killed by the aniline
dyes, or else has given place to the more profitable coffee
industry. Of maize the white, red, black, yellow, and
violet varieties are grown. Amongst the medicinal
plants the most valual^le are chinchona, of which there
appear to be many varieties, though the botanical names
of several are unknown ; and sarsaioarilla, a climbing
plant of a woody nature, much esteemed as a blood-
purifier, and exported to the annual value of about £9000.
Amongst other less important plants are the Amargoso,
noted for its intensely bitter bark; the curious Maya
fruit {Broraelia chrysaniha) ; the Micadia gonodada, locally
called </«aca, also an excellent blood - purifier ; Guazuma
ulmisotia, the bark of which is used in the preparation of
refreshing drinks ; Weinmannia glabra, the bark of which
has tanning properties ; Fepe de cola, the seed of Cola
acuminata, said to be a specific in affections of the liver ;
the Pcpe de cedron, or seed of the Sinatra cedron, reputed
to be a successful antidote against the bite of venomous
snakes ; the OJo de Zamuro, a cure for asthma ; the fruit
of the Cujajo, from the tallow-like fatty substance of
which candles are made ; and several other oleaginous
products.
Fauna
In Venezuela are represented nearly all the members
of the South American mammalian fauna — the howling
monkey and five other anthropoid species, several of the
9() COiMrENDIUiM OF GEOGKAPHV AND TRAVEL
cat family (jaguar, puma, ocelot), the sloth, ant-eater,
and numerous species of bats, besides the lamantin
and the lonina, two cetaceans which frequent the
Lower Orinoco. In the same basin are also met three
kinds of saurians — the true crocodile, sometimes ovei-
20 feet long, the cayman and the bava {Alligator
punctatus).
Of considerable economic value are the turtles of the
Middle Orinoco, which lay a prodigious number of eggs,
chiefly in the district between the Meta and Apure
rivers. From these are annually extracted some 20,000
gallons of oil, and many of the turtles are about 3 feet
long, weighing as much as 70 lbs. Another oil, the so-
called " caripe butter," is obtained from the fjiiacharo, a
bird which frequents the Caripe caves west of the Gulf of
Paria, and other parts of the coast as far as Colombia.
In the esteros, as the rich grazing- grounds of the llanos
are called, the perennial pools and rivulets attract an
endless variety of animal and especially bird life. The
garzeros, or " heronries," as the myriads of flocks are
called from the dominant species, form colonies miles in
extent, and comprise every imaginable variety of heron,
crane, stork, ibis, some snow-white, some a delicate blue,
others gray or pink, and many a brilliant scarlet. Well-
beaten tracks are made under the bushes by the tramp
of the small members of the cat family, who prey on the
fled2;lin"s of these feathered communities. Notable is
the gidriri, a small duck so called from its cry, which at
times rises on the wing in such incredible multitudes as
for a moment to produce the effect of a solar eclipse.
The marshy and malarious districts are infested by the
culeb7'a de agua, the " water-snake," as the huge anaconda
is here called. Its rival, the boa-constrictor, keeps to
the woods, and both prey on wild animals, such as deer
VENEZUELA
97
and the capybara, and on calves or colts when they stray
from the fold.
The jaguar ranges everywhere ; alligators swarm in
ANACOKDA.
all the streams, while the rattle-snake and even the more
dreaded lachesis, besides other venomous species, lurk in
the meadows and thickets near the wayside. Nearly all
the streams teem with edible fish, and the fresh-water
turtle, whose breeding-grounds along the river banks
VOL. I H
98 COaMPP]NDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
yield prodigious quantities of eggs, which do not appear
to be appreciably diminished though largely preyed
upon by man and animals. But the running waters are
also infested by several noxious creatures, such as the
sting-ray, armed with a sharp spine several inches long;
the 'payara, whose upper jaws are furnished with a pair
of fangs like those of the rattle-snake ; and the electric
eel, with a battery strong enough to administer a powerful
shock to horses entering the shallow muddy pools to
quench their thirst.
Most dreaded is the really fornddable carihe, a blood-
thirsty creature like the gold-fish, but stouter, with a
ferocious-looking bull-dog head and projecting lower jaw.
With its sharp three-edged saw-like teeth it can bite in
two a strong steel fish-hook, and it seems to scent blood
from afar, judging from the shoals that rapidly gather
round a wounded animal in the water. It will even
attack wounded alligators in this way, as well as the
crocodile, of which one true species is found in the
Orinoco waters. But the wild hog is not an indigenous
species, but the common European pig run wild. In
some districts it has multiplied prodigiously, and often
causes great damage by uprooting the nutritious grasses,
which are usually replaced by a rank worthless vegetation.
Inhabitants — The Aborigines
Most of the tribal names recorded by the early
writers have disappeared, or cannot now be identified.
Many of these, however, were not ethnical but mere local
designations, such as Pariagoto, Cnmana(]oto, " People of
Paria," '' People of Cumana," and so on. But others
indicated real tribal groups that have either been
absorbed in the general Hispano- American population or
100 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPtAVEL
else exterminated in the wars with the first settlers.
Amongst the latter were probably the Ayamans, a
dwarfish people met by Fredemann in the uplands south
of Barquisimeto, and described as scarcely 3 feet 6 inches
high. The statement, which has never been verified, may
be true, because pygmies of about the same size have been
seen in the Congo forest zone, and the remains of similar
little people have been found in the pre-historic graves of
Switzerland. The great bulk of the present Venezuelan
aborigines belong to the Barri, Carih, and Arav:ak stocks,
and it is interesting to note that Mr. im Thurn describes
the Arawaks of Guiana as the shortest of all the natives
of that region.^ Eeports have also been circulated by
Mr. E. C. Haliburton and others of dwarfish or under-
sized tribes in the Upper Amazon forests, and in Dutch
Guiana, where they go by the name of Makalak, and are
said to be of a " brilliant reddish-yellow " colour. But
none of these reports are beyond suspicion, and there
is at present no evidence to show that any of the
Venezuelan tribes fall lielow the average height of the
undersized peoples of the Andean plateaux or Fuegia.
Numerous rock-carvings, or rude pictorial writings or
scratchings occur in many districts on the banks of the
Orinoco (Ature rapids), and even at altitudes of 7000 or
8000 feet near the Naiguata peak in the Sierra de Mar.
Such carvings as well as idols, or at least stone statues,
abound especially in the Sierra de Merida, and the
resemblance they bear to those of the Colombian plateau
leave little doubt that they represent an easterly spread
of Muysca culture in pre-Columbian times. By the
present Indians, most of whom are descended from the
Timotes, who were said to be of Muysca speech, these
statues are regarded as mere munecos or " dolls." But if
^ Among the hidians of Guiaiij p. 188.
VENEZUELA 101
a cross is carved on the face of any of these dolls they
are at once transformed to sa7iticos, or "little saints," and'
may then be worshipped like the other saints of the
Eoman Calendar.
On the Orinoco delta there still survive a few
thousand of the amphibious Warraus (Guaraunos), who
are already mentioned by Ealeigh, and described by
many later observers. But they are diminishing in
numbers, like the Maypures, Otomacos, Guaicas, Guaharibos,
and most of the other Orinoco aborigines, who have been
decimated by wars, epidemics, " fire-water," the forced
labour system, and hardships of all kinds. All the tribal
groups are destined to disappear at no distant date, if
not by extinction by absorption in the gente de razon,
the " rational people," as the settled and mixed com-
munities are called.
Europeans and Mestizos
Few of the so-called white populations, except those
of the Grita district on the northern slope of the Sierra
de Merida, are of pure Spanish descent. Many of the
first settlers were Basques, and for a long time a Basque
Association enjoyed a monopoly of the trade with Spain.
The seaports of La Guaira and Puerto Cabello were
founded by them, and Bolivar, leader of the revolution,
belonged to the same energetic race. The Catalonians
are also largely represented, and all these Spaniards,
whether of pure or mixed descent, are said to be com-
pletely acclimatised not only in the temperate zone, but
even on the low -lying coastlands and on the llanos.
Thousands of other Europeans and Anglo-Americans
enjoy perfect health in Caracas and the other large towns
of the uplands, and the rich Aragua valley between the
102 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
inland and the coast ranges is eminently suited for
European settlement.
Prospects of Immigrants
But until a stable government is established, intending
emigrants will be warned by the fate of the German
Colony of Tovar from seeking new homes in tliis region.
Carried away by his faith in Teutonic energy and endur-
ance, the distinguished Italian naturalist, Agostino Codazzi,
founded in 1842 a German agricultural settlement at this
place, which stands on an elevated plateau some -40 miles
from Caracas. For a few years the new arrivals, mostly
irom the Black Forest, succeeded fairly well, and their
picturesque homesteads, resembling Swiss chalets, gave
signs of comfort and prosperity in the Tovar district.
But about 1854 progress was arrested by the civil
commotions, which for a number of years paralysed all
industry and enterprise in Venezuela. In 1870 the
whole settlement was laid waste by the soldiers of
tiuzman Blanco, who converted the place into a fortified
camp, demolishing whole rows of houses, and seizing every
available object suitable for the purpose. Eedress or
compensation could not be obtained, and since then the
settlers, to the number of 1250, have been dispersed over
the country.
Historic Retrospect
Venezuela began its colonial existence as a dependency
of Xew Granada — -the present republic of Colombia —
where the At/dicncia Rial was established at Bogota in
1550. In 1718 the colony became a vice-royalty,
and in 1777 the four provinces of ]\Iaracaibo, Caracas,
Cumana, and Guiana, that is the present republic of
Venezuela, were detached from Xew Granada and con-
VENEZUELA 103
stitiited a separate colony under the title of the " Cap-
taincy-General of Venezuela."
The War of Independence, begun in 1810, was for a
moment arrested by the disastrous earthquake of 1812,
when the capital was levelled to the ground. Advantage
was taken by the clergy, nearly all royalists, of the coin-
cidence that this catastrophe took place on Holy Thursday,
exactly a year after the declaration of independence, to
declare that the hand of God had convulsed the land to
crush the rebels. Their strongholds fell one after the
other, and at last their leader, Miranda, surrendered the
ruins of Caracas to its old masters.
But the dying embers of revolt were rekindled by the
numerous bands of volunteers, who poured in from the
Antilles, from the United States and Europe, and at one
time numbered as many as 9000, chiefly Anglo-Americans
and English. Nevertheless little progress was made
until the llaneros, that is, the hardy " cow-boys " of the
llanos, hitlierto staunch royalists, suddenly took sides
with the patriots, and by a harassing guerilla warfare
exhausted the strength of the disciplined Spanish forces.
At last the decisive battle of Carabobo (1821) put an
end to Spanish misrule, and the old Captaincy of
Caracas became for a time 'an integral part of the
Eepublic of Colombia, which at first comprised the
three present republics of Colombia, Ecuador, and
Venezuela.
The success of the general movement was by common
consent attributed to the " Liberator," Simon Bolivar, on
grounds that have since been called in question. In any
case the united confederacy, proclaimed by him in 1819,
held together only till the year 1828, when it was dis-
solved by the Convention of Ocana into three independent
states, the Republic of Venezuela being constituted out of
104 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the four departments of Orinoco, Apure, Venezuela, and
Zulia.
During the period of absolute self-government Vene-
zuela lias been the theatre of as many general and partial
revolutions as perhaps any other Hispano-American
State. It would be tedious to follow the vicissitudes of
these fratricidal struggles for power, some of which have
been carried on with great ferocity, while others have
entangled the republic in foreign complications, arising
out of boundary questions or else out of claims for
compensation for losses inflicted on British, German,
or French subjects by one or other of the rival
factions. These political commotions show little sign
of abatement, and so recently as June 1898 fresh
fuel was added to the flames by the assassination of
ex-President Crespo.
Topography — Chief Towns
As modern states are constituted, a safe indication of
their economic condition may in most cases be had from
the proportion of the urban to the rural population, and
generally from the growth of the towns and especially of
the chief centres of trade and the industries. Judged by
this test, Venezuela must take rank with the most back-
ward countries in the world. In the subjoined table of
the sixteen largest places in the republic it will be seen
that the population of ten only exceeds 10,000, and of
one only 50,000, while the collective population of all
falls below 300,000 as compared with the 2,323,000 of
the whole country. In other words, A^enezuela is still
mainly inhabited by scattered rural communities and
nomad tribes, with scarcely any large industrial or com-
mercial centres : —
106
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Caracas
. 72,000
Puerto Cabello
. 11,000
Valencia .
. 38,000
Ciudad Bolivar
. 11,000
Maracaibo .
. 34,000
Tocuyo
. 10,000
liarquisiineto
. 31,000
Maturin
. 10,000
IJarcelona .
. 13,000
Maracai
7,500
La Guaiia .
. 12,000
Cumaria
. 6,500
Ciudad de Cura .
. 12,000
Merida
. 5,000
Gnanare
. 11,000
Victoria
5,000
Caracas, the capital of the repuljlic, was founded by
Diego Losada in 1567 on the southern slope of the Silla
range, at an altitude of about 3000 feet above the sea.
It was captured and sacked by Drake in 1595, and since
then has suffered greatly from disastrous earthquakes, and
still more disastrous sieges during the Civil wars. Yet
it has always risen from its ruins, and is now by far
the largest city, as well as the chief centre of intellectual
life in the State. Besides a national library of 32,000
volumes, and a museum, there is a university, which since
the suppression of the ecclesiastical seminaries in 1872
has chairs both of divinity and the natural sciences. From
its port of La Guaira Caracas is distant only two miles in
a straight line ; but so steep are the slopes on both sides
that the railway, which since IS S3 has superseded the
old track over the crest of the Silla range, has a total
length of no less than 23 miles. At La Guaira, where
the normal temperature of about 82° Fahr. is rendered
almost unbearable by the moist atmosphere and sultry
nights, there is no natural haven of any kind. In 1821
nearly all the shipping was dashed to pieces on the
encircling rocks by a violent tempest ; but since then a
pier and a few other harbour-works afford a little shelter
to the vessels that here ship the coffees of the Aragua
valley in exchange for European wares.
Valencia, at the west end of the lake to which it gives
its name, is even an older place, and occupies a more
VENEZUELA
10'
central position than Caracas. After the secession from
Colombia it was for a time the seat of Government, and
is still the most flonrishing agricultural centre in the
republic. The northern route to the spacious natural
harbour of Puerto Cahcllo passes down the Ar/ua Calicnte
(" Hot Water ") valley, which takes its name i'rom the
Tr inch eras thermal streams, which are amongst the hottest
LA GUAIRA.
in the world, varying with the seasons from 196'' to 206°
Fahr. Soutliwards Valencia communicates through the
prosperous rural towns of Giudad de Cura, Maracai, and
Turmcro, with the finest pastoral districts of the upper
llanos.
But west of Valencia the populations still continue to
avoid tlie plains, so that all the chief towns lie either on
the inland or the coast ranges, or else on the neighbourino;
108 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
seaboard. Such are Merida, in the heart of the Sierra of
like name, at an altitude of 5450 feet, which has converted
its old ecclesiastical seminary into a not very flourishing
university ; Trujillo and Barquisimeto, still in the uplands ;
Tiicacas, Tocuyo, Coro, and Maracaibo on the coast. The
little haven of Tucacas near Tocuyo owes its prosperity
to the railway, 60 miles long, which connects it with the
copper-mines of the Aroa district. It is proposed to
continue this line to San FeliiJe, Barquisimeto, and the
other inland towns in this mineral region, and also along
the coast to the historical but now decayed town of Coro
at the neck of the sandy Paraguana Peninsula. Coro,
founded in 1527, was the starting-point of the famous
expedition under the German Captains Fredemann,
Alfinger, and others, which led to the discovery of the
Colombian plateau, the Eio Magdalena, the llanos, and
the Orinoco. Por some time it was the capital of
Venezuela, but after its capture by the English in 1567
the seat of Government was removed to Caracas. Mara-
caibo, formerly Nueva Zamora, was founded in 1571 on
the west side of the channel connecting the outer and
inner Maracaibo basins. It thus commands the natural
outlet of the vast region comprised between the Colombian
plateau and the Sierra de Merida, hence must always
remain the chief forwarding station for the coffee, cacao,
cattle, hides, minerals, and other produce of the surround-
ing slopes. In the vicinity are the lacustrine dwellings
of Santa Rosa, which exactly resemble those sighted by
the first explorers, from which the whole country took
the name of Venezuela.
Few other places call for mention except the little
seaports of. Barcelona and C'umana on the coast east of
La Guaira, and Ciudad Bolivar, which, although situated
on the (!)rinoco in the heart of the llanos, must also be
VENEZUELA 109
regarded as a seaport. At present it is the only important
commercial centre in this vast basin ; yet even including
the thriving suburb of Soledad on the opposite (left) bank
of the river, the population scarcely exceeds 14,000.
Amongst the numerous railway projects, which must
remain projects till the establishment of a stable govern-
ment, is one to connect the capital across the llanos with
this station of Soledad. Here the Orinoco contracts at
the Angostura or " Narrows " to a width of less than half
a mile, and in mid-stream rises the Piedra del Medio, or
" Middle Eock," by which, when the time comes, the line
will easily be carried across the river to Bolivar, and
thence to the foot of the Parima uplands.
Until some such scheme of inter -communication is
carried out, these desolate wilds must remain uninhabited,
except by a few scattered Carib or Arawak tribes. No
attempt has yet been made to develop their natural
resources, so that in the whole region there appears to be
not a single permanent station or centre of civilised
population. Yet, judging from the gold-washings in the
alluvial parts about the Cuyuni and Barima rivers, the
country probably abounds in rich gold-bearing reefs, as
well as in iron and other useful minerals.
Government — Social Condition
The charter of fundamental laws, which dates from
1830, and was modified in 1881, is based on the con-
stitution of the United States, the chief difference being
a larger measure of self-government conceded to the
provincial and local administrations. The President,
who is elected only for two years, is aided by six ministers
and a Federal Council of nineteen members, the latter
being appointed by the Congress also for two years. The
VENEZUELA 111
Council from their own body elect a President, who is
ex-officio President of the Ptepublic. He has no veto
power over the decree of Congress, which consists of the
Senate (three memljers for each of the eight States and
for the Federal district) and the House of Piepresentatives
(one to every 35,000 of tlie population). Both Houses
are elected for four years, the former by the Legislature
of each State, the latter by public election. The central
Government has charge of the territories and colonies,
and of the general defence, while the several states or
provinces have each their own legislature and executive,
with complete control over their own financial and judicial
afiairs. In fact, the only bond of union is that of the
national defence, and surprise has often been expressed
at the violence of the rival factions, when the coveted
piize — a vetoles's President, holding office for two years —
seems to be of such little value. But the President is
often virtually a Dictator, who administers the public funds
in the interest of himself and his partisans. Perhaps
under these circumstances they may claim some credit for
moderation, seeing that the collective foreign and internal
debt scarcely exceeded £8,000,000 in 1898. In the same
year the revenue and expenditure were estimated to balance
at £1,612,000. The chief source of revenue is the Customs
(over £1,000,000), and the chief items of expenditure
the administration (Civil Service), and the interest on the
debt. The charge for defences is slight, the standing army
comprising only about 4000 men, and the navy compris-
ing only three steamers and two sailing-vessels.
The sum yearly expended on elementary education
averages about £100,000 since 1870, when pubhc
instruction was made free and compulsory. In 1898
the attendance at the Federal and State free schools
exceeded 100,000. For higher education provision is
112
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
made by two universities (Caracas and Merida), 22 Federal
colleges, 26 private colleges, 11 national colleges for girls,
and a few technical schools, with a total attendance of
nearly 5000, and a public expenditure of £35,000.
Although the ecclesiastical establishments have been
suppressed or secularised, the Iioman Catholic remains
the State religion. Toleration is extended to other
denominations, which, however, are forbidden public pro-
THE CAPITOL, CARACAS.
cessions and all other outward display. In 1897 about
400 miles of railway had been completed, and in the
same year the total exports exceeded £4,400,000, of
which £60,000 were taken by Great Britain in exchange
for £790,000 of British produce. Thus the exchanges
at present are largely in favour of the United Kingdom,
which also enjoys most of the profits of the carrying-
trade, not only on the high seas but also in the naviga-
tion of the Orinoco, which has mainly been developed Ijy
British enterprise.
UELA
65°
ISLANDS
Spanuird.il
C A RI
^...
•s:^(!nlul/,.
\B J
C.Codera
Tjj-itit
V
VENEZUELA
RnijA/rwf3 shtnrn. thus
CHAPTER V
COLOMBIA
Boundaries — Frontier Questions — Extent, Areas, and Populations —
Physical Features — The Colombian Andes — The Eastern Cordillera —
The Central Cordillera — The Western Cordillera — The Sierra Nevada
de Santa Marta — H3'drography — The iMagdalena-Cauca Basin — The
Magdalena — The Cauca — The Siuu, Atrato, San Juan, and Patia
Rivers — Lacustrine Basins : Lakes Fuquene and Guatavita — Climate
— Flora — Fauna — Inhabitants — The Cultured Peoples — The Chibchas
— Primitive Mining Process — • The Wild Tribes — The Goajiros
— Topography — Chief Towns of Colombia — The Discovery — Conquest
and Settlement — Colonial Administration — The Revolution — Present
Regime — Religion — Education — Natural Resources — Mineral
Wealth.
Boundaries — Extent, Areas, and Populations
The " Eepublic of Colombia," which siuce 1885 is the
official title of this State, occupies about half a million
square miles of territory in the north-west corner of the
southern continent, together with the isthmus of Panama
in Central America. Apart from this outlying depend-
ency, which is dealt with elsewhere, Colombia stretches
from a little north of the equator to the Atlantic, pre-
senting a coast -line of about 1300 miles both to the
Pacific and to the Caribbean Sea. Landwards it is con-
terminous on the east with Venezuela, on the south-east
for a short distance with Brazil and Peru, and on the
south with Ecuador. Here also the frontiers may be
estimated at nearly 1300 miles, although they have been
VOL. I. I
114
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
definitely settled only towards Venezuela. The tracts
contested with the other border States involve some very
extensive districts watered by the western affluents of
the Amazon. But they are at present of such slight
economic value, being for the most part little -known
wildernesses roamed by a few nomad wild tribes, that
none of the litigants seem eager for a final settlement.
Two continuous and parallel zones are chiefly affected,
one roughly comprised between the Eios Napo and
Putumayo, the other lying between the Piedra del Cocu}'
and Tabatinga on the Amazon. Here the line running
north and south, as laid down by Biazil, overlaps that
claimed by Colombia by about 180 miles. Ecuador
draws its eastern boundary in such a way as to include
the middle course of the Putumayo, and even a strip
beyond that river, while Peru wishes to secure the lower
course of the same river. The whole question was
referred in 1894 to Spain, whose decision is still pending.
But whatever that decision may be, the Colombian
Kepublic must still possess a vast domain of probably
over 500,000 square miles, considerably more densely
inhabited than A^enezuela, with a population estimated
at about 4,000,000, and distributed over the nine de-
partments of the State as under : —
Departments.
Area in sq. miles.
Population,
(est. 189G.)
Antioquia
22,316
500,000
Bolivar
21,345
280,000
Boyaca
3.3,351
720,000
Canca .
257,462
650,000
Cunilinamarca
79,810
600,000
Magdalena
24,440
100,000
Santandei-
16,409
560,000
Tolima
18,069
306,000
473,202
3,716,000
Panama
31,571
1 . . 504,773
285,000
Tota
4,001,000
COLOMBIA 115
No regular census has been taken since 1870, when
the population was returned at 2,951,000, while an
official estimate for 1881 gave 3,878,000. Hence, if
the estimate for 1896 is approximately correct, there
has been an increase of about 34 per cent during the
last three decades, despite the usual political disorders,
the insalubrity of the low-lying tracts and the absence
of immigrants. Thus the increase is almost exclusively
due to the excess of births over the mortality, an excess
at present estimated at from 60,000 to 70,000 yearly.
On the other hand, the uncivilised aborigines appear to
be rapidly disappearing, having fallen from 220,000 in
1881 to 150,000 in 1896, if the calculations are correct.
Besides these wild tribes there are about 200,000 more
or less civilised and settled full-blood Indians, who are
distinguished from the general population chiefly by their
speech. Since the emancipation of the slaves, the
Sambos, as all with a strain of black blood are here
called, have decreased everywhere except on the coast-
lands where they enjoy a certain immunity from ma-
larious affections.
All the rest of the inhabitants, that is nine-tenths of
the whole, are returned as " whites," although they are
for the most part undoubtedly a cross between the
aborigines and Spaniards from Andalusia, Catalonia, the
Basque Provinces, and other parts of the Peninsula.
All are of Spanish speech, and enjoy absolute social
equality with the few whites who have here and there
preserved their racial purity. As in Venezuela, all
the settled communities are concentrated mainly on
the elevated plateaux, avoiding both the hot eastern
slopes facing the Amazonian plains and the low-lying
malarious districts about the Lower Magdalena and
Atrato rivers.
116 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
Physical Features — The Colombian Andes
Although the Andean system is continued without
any break from Ecuador into Colombia, the northern
section differs in one important respect from all other
parts of the Cordillera. Elsewhere the ramifications
enclose elevated plateaux which are usually traversed
by cross ridges connecting the outer ramparts. But in
Colombia the plateaux, with one or two exceptions, are
replaced by deep river valleys disposed longitudinally,
that is, parallel with the ramifying ranges. Thus it
happens that, while many of the great rivers of Ecuador
and Peru, for instance, have their sources on the eastern
escarpments and drain east to the Amazon, several of
those farther north flow in long depressions between the
Andean ranges, and find independent outlets in the
Caribbean Sea.
The Eastern Cordillera
Immediately north of the equator, where it enters
Colombian territory, the Andean system spreads out like
the ribs of a fan into three distinct ranges, which are
sharply defined by the two fluvial valleys of the rivers
Magdalena and Cauca. The Eastern Cordillera, which
is by far the longest, comprises four more or less distinct
sections — Miraflores, Summa Paz, Cocui, and Negra
(Ferijaa), — which vary considerably in altitude, but have
a general north-easterly tread. Beginning in a low ridge
about 6000 feet high about the sources of the Putumayo
and Yapura affluents of the Amazon, the Miraflores chain,
so named from its highest peak (9200 feet), runs with a
gradual rise nearly due north to the Sierra de Summa Paz,
the " Mountains of Highest Peace," skirting the Cundi-
namarca plateau at a mean elevation of 11,000 feet, and
COLOMBIA 117
in the Nevada (14,146 feet) penetrating into the region
of eternal snows. Viewed from Bogata the Nevado
seems, when bathed in the rays of the setting sun, like
another Olympus, the serene abode of the immortals, and
to this circumstance it owes its title of Summa Paz,
which is often extended to the whole Eastern Cordillera.
Beyond the Pan de Azucar (the "Sugar-loaf," 12,140
feet) a transverse ridge is projected along the north side
of the old lacustrine depression of Bogota, where the
whole space limited westwards by the Magdalena valley
presents the aspect of an exceedingly rugged mountain
mass carved by the running waters into a confused group
of heights and crests, and merging northwards in the
more regular Sierra Nevada de Cocui.
Here the Eastern Cordillera attains its greatest eleva-
tion in several domes from 16,000 to 16,700 feet higli.
Beyond the Tama (13,126) and Cachiri (13,780) peaks,
near the sources of the Apure affluent of the Orinoco, the
Sierra de Cocui bifurcates round the Maracaibo basin, the
eastern branch bending round to join the Venezuelan
Sierra de Merida, while the western, that is, the Sierra
de Perijaa or Sierra Negra, runs at a lower elevation due
north to the neck of the Goajira Peninsula. At first
this northern section rises considerably above 10,000
feet in several crests, such as the Rorqueta (10,768 feet)
and the Cerro Mina and Cerro Pintado, both 11,000 feet.
But farther on the range falls to below 6000 feet, and
is crossed by passes 4000 and 3000 feet high, affording
easy communication between the Lower Magdalena and
the Maracaibo basin. In the Motilones district one peak
rises above 8000 feet, while another, Cerro Pintado, a con-
spicuous mass of white limestone diversified with bands of
light and dark green vegetation, rises near the extremity
of the Sierra Negra to an estimated height of 11,800 feet.
118 COMPEXUIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
The Central Cordillera
West of the Eastern follow the Central and the
Western Cordilleras, the former presenting an un-
broken rampart of Alpine aspect between the Magdalen a
and Cauca valley, the latter separating the Cauca from
the Pacific drainage area. The Central, or QvAndio
Cordillera, as it is often called, from the famous historical
pass near the middle of the system, differs from the two
lateral ramifications both in its greater altitude and its
more rugged highland features, as well as in its almost
exclusively volcanic character as far north as the
Antioquia plateau.
Close to the Ecuador frontier rise the three cones of
Azufrcd (13,360 feet), Cumlal (15,720), and Chiles
(15,680), which, however, seem to belong rather to the
Western than to the Central Cordillera. In fact, the
main axes of all three systems cannot here be very
clearly distinguished, as they all converge a little farther
north in the Pasto knot, where are grouped three other
volcanoes, the Bordoncillo (Fatascoi), the Camjpanero
(12,470 feet), and the Pasto (14,000), which gives its
name to this remarkable Alpine entanglement, and is
perhaps the most active volcano in Colombia. It often
ejects red-hot stones to a great height, and from its huge
crater flows a copious stream charged with sulphuric
acid. In the neighbouring little Cocha tarn the Putu-
mayo has its farthest western source.
A little farther north the Central Cordillera broadens
out in the Buey plateau, where is the so-called " Massif
of Colombia," true hydrographic centre of the whole
region. Here four important streams, rising in close
proximity, diverge to three different basins — the Patia
direct to the Pacific, the Caqueta through the Amazon to
COLOMBIA 119
the Atlantic, the Magdaleua and Cauca to the Caribbean.
On the ridge separating the Patia from the Cauca stands
the extinct Sotara cone (14,500 feet).
At the north-west extremity of the Cocomtcos chain,
with its live snowy peaks, rises the still restless Purac6,
which, after the explosion of 1849 was reduced to a
truncated cone about 16,000 feet high. From its flanks
the famous Rio Pasambio, " Vinegar Kiver," which is
highly charged with sulphuric and other acids, tumbles
over a romantic waterfall 260 feet high. North of the
Gucmacas Pass (11,000 feet), which affords access from
the Upper Cauca to the Upper Magdalena valley, the
triple-peaked Huila (18,000 feet) still emits sulphurous
vapours, and although the chain falls beyond Santa
Catalina (16,170 feet) down to the Central Quindio Pass
(11,440), it again rises a little farther north in the
Tolima cone (18,400), — culminatnig point of Colombia,
unless it is to be deprived of this honour by the snowy
crest of the Sierra de Santa Marta. Tolima, which
stands a little east of the main axis, has been quiescent
since 1826 and 1829, when columns of vapour rose from
the central crater. But it has developed several parasitic
cones on its flanks, while solfataras have sprung up on
the surrounding paramos and as far down as the Quindio
Pass.
Farther north follow Santa Isabel (16,760), with
thermal springs at a temperature of 148° Fahr. and the
huge mass of the snowy Ruiz (17,390), not yet quite ex-
tinct, beyond which the igneous system proper terminates
in the Alto Pcreiro, surmounted by the imposing Mesa
Nevada de Herveo (18,340). From the transverse ridge
of -San Miguel (9025) three short branches diverge
northwards in the direction of the Antioquia plateau,
where the main axis is dominated in the Santa Rosa de
120 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
los Osos ridge (" Bear Mountains ") by the San Jose peak
(9000), and farther north by the twin-crested Yarumal
(7470 and 7230). The escarpment:? of the Antioquia
plateau here fall rapidly down to the low-lying alluvial
plains watered by the converging currents of the Eios
Cauca and Magdalena.
The Western Cordillera
North of the Pasto knot the Choco Bange — as the
Western Cordillera is often called from the Choco
aborigines formerly occupying its slopes — runs for some
distance nearly due north, and so close to the left bank
of the Eio Cauca that in its upper course this river seems
to flow in a trench of enormous depth between rocky
escarpments several thousand feet high. Here the Choco
system already attains its greatest elevation in the gold-
bearing Cerro Torra (12,600 feet), which was scaled in
1878 by Mr. R B. White. Farther on the Farimo de
Frontino Citara stands at a mean altitude of a little over
11,000 feet, and the same elevation is maintained by the
Faramillo, where the various ramifying ridges of the
Cordillera diverge northwards between the Cauca and
the Upper Leon valleys. In the northern section the
San Jeronimo chain, prolonged north-eastwards by the
Murmucu group, falls below 5000 feet. But the ridge
running in the same direction from the Quinamari
plateau to the Gulf of Uraba rises to 6600 feet in the
Chigurrado peak at the eastern entrance to that inlet.
Although the Choco range nowhere develops any igneous
cones north of the Pasto group, it resembles the other
ramifications of the Colombian Andes in its general
geological constitution — a central backbone of crystalline
rocks underlying extensive cretaceous formations which
COLOMBIA 121
were deposited in shallow waters probably in late
Secondary times.
The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
To a totally different system belongs the isolated mass
of the snowy Santa Marta, which, although occupying a
triangular space of little over 6000 square miles between
the Magdalena delta and the Goajira Peninsula, rises,
according to some estimates, to a height of no less than
19,000 feet. But the measurements of F. A. Simons,
who in 1875 reached the Parimo de Chirugua (16,000
feet), and in a second expedition came within 500 feet of
the summit, were considerably reduced by later estimates,
which at present oscillate between 17,000 and 18,150 feet
(Ptitter). This superb mountain mass is almost completely
separated from the Central Cordillera by the valleys of
the two rivers Cesar and Eancheria, the former flowing
north-west to the Magdalena, the latter encircling the
eastern slopes in its winding course to the Caribbean Sea.
The view presented by the precipitous northern slopes
rising abruptly from the marine depths, and, clothed up
to the snow -line by a vegetation of extraordinary
splendour and variety, is one of the grandest in the New
World. Granites and metamorphic rocks with some
recent lavas appear to be its chief geological constituents.
Earthquakes have frequently been recorded, and as
igneous eruptions are said to have occurred in the
eighteenth century, there is little reason to doubt the
statement that the Sierra is partly of volcanic origin.
Hydrography — The Magdalena-Cauca Basin
From the general lie of the land, as above set forth,
its drainage system almost explains itself The three
122 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Cordilleras form, broadly speaking, three divides, — the
eastern, between the Atlantic and the Magdalena ; the
western, between the Pacific and the Cauca slopes ; and
the Central, between the Magdalena and the Cauca valleys.
Again, the streams flowing to the Atlantic either through
the Orinoco or the Amazon are, with two or three excep-
tions, comprised only in their upper courses within the
Colombian frontiers, and belong rather to the neighbouring
States of Venezuela and Ecuador, where they are described.
On the other hand, the Pacific slope is too narrow to
allow room for large fluvial valleys, so that only two
rivers worthy of note — the Patia and the San Juan —
find their way to this basin. There remain the Atrato,
almost a frontier river, flowing to the Caribbean in an
old marine channel, and the two great central arteries —
the Magdalena and the Cauca — through which the
greater part of the drainage of the three Cordilleras,
that is of Colombia proper, is conveyed also to the
Caribbean. Even these converge in their lower courses,
entering the sea through a common delta, so that, strictly
speaking, they form but one hydrographic system.
The Magdalena
But no adequate impression of the extent of this
system is conveyed by the small-scale maps of Colombia,
which are alone accessible to the general public. Hence
most readers will perhaps learn with a feeling almost
akin to incredulity that the Magdalena, that is, the larger
eastern branch, is the fourth largest river in South
America, being surpassed in length and volume only by
the Plate, Amazon, and Orinoco, that it is over 1000
miles long, and is navigable at high water throughout its
lower and upper courses for 830 miles, with a single
124 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
break of about 20 miles, and is joined by over 500
affluents from the Cordilleras, while the drainage area of
both branches is estimated at about 100,000 square
miles, that is, 8000 square miles more than the total
area of England, Scotland, and Wales.
Yet for many miles in its upper reaches the Magda-
lena has the aspect rather of a mountain torrent, rushing,
like the Cauca, down a steep incline between the high
rocky walls of the Central and Eastern Cordilleras.
Eising about 2° K lat. in the Buey lakelet, which gives
its name to the surrounding plateau, it takes a course
north by east parallel with the two Sierras to the con-
fluence of the Neiva, which marks the head of the upper
navigation about 170 miles from its source. Thanks to
the numerous contributions tumbling down from the
encircling hills, the current here becomes broader, deeper,
and more tranquil till it approaches the important station
of Honda, where are developed a series of rapids about
20 miles long between Arrancaplumas and Yeguas. At
this point, 603 miles above Barranquilla in the delta, the
lower navigation is completely arrested, and the portage
thus formed is now turned by a short railway, which
belongs to an English company, and which it is proposed
to continue to Conejo, 12 miles below the rapids. The
lower course, which presents a clear navigable waterway
of over 600 miles uninterrupted by any obstruction, is
at present utilised by as many as forty steamers, all
stern- wheelers, and with capacities ranging up to 300
tons.
Lower down the Magdalena is joined, chiefly on its
right bank, by several large affluents, which are useless
for navigation and noted especially for their wild romantic
scenery. Such are the Funza, which a short distance
below the Bogota plateau develops the magnificent
COLOMBIA 125
Tequenclama Falls, 475 feet high, with a volume of o^^er
4000 cubic feet per second; the Rio Narc, which joins
the left bank at the Nare gorge, where the main stream
is 100 feet deep, with a discharge of 180,000 cubic feet
per second during the Hoods ; the Sogamoso, largest of all
the affluents on the right bank, which is formed by the
junction of the ChicaviocJia and Saravita, the latter fall-
ing in a narrow gorge 800 yards in the space of 3 miles,
and then disappearing in an underground channel for a
distance of over 200 yards.
The Cauca
After leaving its roclcy bed in the Cordilleras, the
Magdalena winds in a somewhat sluggish and ramifying
course over the marshy and malarious plains below
Antioquia to Tacaloa, where it is joined by the Cauca
about 200 miles above the delta. At the confluence the
Cauca has a discharge of nearly 78,000 cubic feet per
second, and seems scarcely inferior in volume to the
Magdalena. The length of its course to this point is
also about the same ; but it flows in a narrower and
more precipitous channel, which is fed by fewer tributaries,
and is navigable only for some miles in the higher
reaches. Hence the united stream rightly retains the
name of the Magdalena for the rest of its course through
the lowlands to the relatively small delta which is
developed a little to the west of the Sierra de Santa
Malta. This delta, which is known as the island de los
Gomez, has a seaward frontage of about 1 2 miles between
the two chief branches, the Boca, de, Rio Viejo and the
Boca de Caniza. This branch, which lies to the west, is
the main mouth, but in order fully to develop the river
trafflc a safe passage for sea-going vessels requires to be
126 COMrENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
opened from Savanilla by this channel to BarraiKiuilla,
where begins the fluvial navigation proper. Pending the
necessary improvements, the Boca de Caniza route,
formerly utilised for the cattle trade with Cuba, has l^een
abandoned in favour of the railway now opened from
Barranquilla to Savanilla on the coast. When the
shifting bar is deepened, vessels drawing 24 feet will be
able to ascend the Lower Magdalena to its junction with
the Cauca.
The Sinu, Atrato, San Juan, and Patia Rivers
The low-lying district between Savanilla and the Gulf
of Uraba is traversed by the Sinu, a sluggish stream
which rises in the Paramillo heights, reaches the coast
at the Morosquillo inlet, and is accessible to small craft
for over 100 miles at high water. Farther on the
spacious Gulf of Darien is entered through a large delta by
the Atrato, which rises near the source of the San Juan
at the low sill here forming the divide between the
Atlantic and Pacific basins. Owing to the heavy rain-
fall, fed by the vapours from the two contiguous oceans,
the Atrato receives a large number of short tributaries
from the surrounding uplands, and, after a course of
about 400 miles, discharges into the lower part of the
gulf a volume which is estimated, during the fioods, at no
less than 175,000 cubic feet per second. Such a volume
is out of all proportion to the extent of its basin, which
scarcely exceeds 24,000 square miles, and the conse-
quence is that large quantities of alluvial matter are
continually deposited throughout its lower course and
along the west side of the gulf.
Thus has already been filled in the old marine channel,
and the large delta with as many as fifteen shilting
COLOMBIA 127
mouths is now advancing steadily across the head of tlie
gulf, so that the time must come when the Cnlata, or
" Sack," as the southern inlet is called, will be trans-
formed to a lacustrine basin. Not more than two of the
mouths are navigable, and even these are obstructed by
bars, which exclude vessels drawing over 5 or 6 feet.
But higher up the main stream is from 40 to 60 or even
70 feet deep, and with a little dredging at the entrance
would be accessible to the largest vessels for over 100
miles from the gulf. At present it is utilised only by a
few boats and steamers of light craft ; yet the Atrato
valley must become one of the great highways of the
world's traffic whenever the projected inter- oceanic ship
canal is constructed. It was already pointed out by
Fidalgo, over a hundred years ago, that the two navigable
Eios Atrato and San Juan might be connected by a
cutting a little more than a mile in length. It has also
been shown that the divide might easily be pierced at
the Easpadura gorge, and other more or less feasible
schemes have been proposed by Trautwine, Porter,
Selfridge, and other engineers.
Selfridge, who has surveyed all the rival plans, sums
up in favour of the Atrato-Doguado line, which might be
carried out at a cost of about £11,000,000, and is also
recommended by its more healthy climate and by the
possession of natural harbours at both ends. But owing
to political and other causes, all these projects have been
rejected for the Panama route, already partly constructed,
at a prodigious cost, under the auspices of France, and
that of Nicaragua, which has been taken in hand by the
United States Government.
The Ban Juan, which continues the main axis of the
Atrato to tlie Pacific, is nearly 200 miles long, but with
its affluents presents a total navigable waterway of about
128 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TPtAVEL
oOO miles. Unfortunately it suffers from the same
drawback as the Atrato, and the bars at the mouths of
its delta a little north of Buenaventura have nowhere a
depth of more than 6 or 7 feet. Its discharge, estimated
at 50,000 cubic feet per second, exceeds that of any
other fluvial basin on the Pacific slope of the southern
continent.
The Patia, which also reaches the coast through an
obstructed delta, has its sources in the Colombian knot,
being formed by the junction of the Sotara descending
from the Sotara volcano and the Guaitara, which flows
from the Pasto volcano. The Carchi, that is, the upper
course of the Guaitara, forms for some distance the
political frontier between Colombia and Ecuador, and
here it is crossed on the route between Popayan and
Quito by the Eumichaca arch, which is still popularly
known as the " Incas' Bridge," although the Incas had no
hand in its construction. It is a natural curiosity, like
that which spans a torrent rushing down to the right
bank of the James Eiver, Virginia, but of smaller size.
After escaping through the narrow Minama gorge from
the Choco range, the Patia winds through the marshy
coastlands to its delta, which, like those of the San Juan
and Atrato, advances some distance beyond the normal
shore-line.
Lacustrine Basins : Lakes Fuquene and Guatavita
Like those in so many other regions of the Cordillera,
the old Colombian lacustrine lakes have nearly all been
drained by the streams flowing either eastwards to the
Orinoco and Amazon, or northwards to the Caribbean.
Lake Fuquenf, the largest of those still surviving from a
former geological epoch, has, even within the memory of
COLOMBIA 129
man, been considerably reduced in size. The village of
Fuquene, from which it is named, formerly stood on its
banks, but is now 3 miles distant, and travellers in the
seventeenth century describe it as a large sheet of water
nearly 30 miles long and 8 wide, whereas at present it
is only 4 or 5 miles by 3. The lake, which has a mean
depth of about 24 feet, is traversed by the Saravita
branch of the Sogamoso affluent of the Magdalena.
The Cundinamarca plateau was undoubtedly at one
time a vast lacustrine basin, which has discharged most
of its contents through the Bogota (Funza) to the Upper
Magdalena. Nothing now remains except a few little
flooded depressions, one of which, however. Lake Guata-
vita, is of some historic interest. In pre-Columbian
times this lakelet w^as the scene of certain periodical
ceremonies, which unquestionably gave rise to the myth
of El Dorado. One of the solemn functions fell to the
part of a great chief of the Chibchas, who, powdered all
over with gold-dust, plunged into the pool, and the
ablution by which he was divested of his glittering garb
was taken as a proof that the offering thus made of all
his wealth was accepted by the tutelar deity of the
Chibcha nation. This was the true " Man of Gold,"
whom, even after his discovery, the treasure -seekers
continued to go in quest of over half the continent.
Climate
Owing to its highly-diversified relief, the disposition
of the three Cordilleras, narrow pent-up fluvial valleys,
sloping inland plains, flat marshy coastlands, irregular
distribution of heat and moisture, Colombia presents a
greater variety of climates than almost any other region
of equal extent. So completely is latitude neutralised
VOL. I K
130 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
by elevation on the uplands, that, despite their proximity
to the equator, some of the more favoured plateaux enjoy
a delightful climate, corresponding, as regards temper-
ature, somewhat to the spring and autumn of the
temperate zones. Here the extremes of winter and
summer are unknown, and the alternating seasons, which
follow the regular course of the sun, are determined
rather by the varying degrees of moisture and dryness
than by those of heat and cold. Thus there are two wet
seasons {veranos), when the sun is at the zenith, and two
dry seasons (inviernos), when he approaches the tropics.
On the Bogota tableland the glass oscillates between
about 50° and 78° Fahr., while the annual rainfuU rarely
exceeds 45 inches. The heavy downpours are often
accompanied by terrific thunder and hail -storms, but
after their passage leave the atmosphere pure and bright.
Owing, however, to local causes, clear skies are a raie
phenomenon on the Pacific slopes of the Western Cordil-
lera, where the verano may be said to prevail throughout
the year. Being completely sheltered from the cool
north-east trade-winds, the Pacific seaboard retains the
heavy, moisture-laden clouds rolling up from the ocean,
and is thus exposed to drenching rains at all seasons.
Another contrast is presented by the sultry inland
plains sloping from the Eastern Cordillera towards the
Orinoco and Amazon, where the mean temperature
seldom falls below 86° Fahr., and in some places, the
so-called "Colombian hells," rises to 90° or 91°. Even
more stifling heats prevail in some of the central fluvial
valleys, where the cool trade -winds are intercepted by
the ramifying Cordilleras. Here the glass indicates a
mean of about 88°, often rising as high as 101° in the
shade. In fact the Magdalena and Cauca valleys are
nearly ten decrrees hotter tlian the Atlantic coastlands.
COLOMBIA 131
which, despite their greater distance from the equator,
are themselves hotter than the Pacific slope. The
difference has been attributed to the influence of Hum-
boldt's cold Pacific current.
Special conditions prevail on the low-lying Atlantic
seaboard, which is exposed to the full fury of the trade-
winds, and although true hurricanes never range quite so
far south, the Caribbean waters are often churned up by
the fierce north-easterly gales. The rainfall is excessive
on all these coastlands, ranging from 100 inches about
the Santa Marta slopes to perhaps 200 in the Atrato
valley and on the Pacific slope. This heavy discharge,
combined with the sweltering heats and the supersaturated
soil of the flat lowlands, sufficiently accounts for the
malarious nature of the plains traversed by the ramifying
branches of the Pio Magdalena. Here cutaneous diseases,
leprosy, and elephantiasis, are very prevalent, and nearly
all the inhabitants of certain villages present a repulsive
sight, with face and body spotted all over, like the jaguars
of the neighbouring thickets. In the upper valley goitre
and cretinism are common, so that in no part of the
world are greater contrasts presented than by the
salubrious and almost vernal climate of the phiteaux
and the fever-stricken riverine valleys and lowlands of
Colombia. .
Flora
Like all moist tropical lands, Colombia possesses an
extremely rich and varied flora, which, however, is of a
somewhat cosmopolitan character. The relati\'ely few
indigenous species are associated with numerous forms,
which have gravitated towards this transitional region
from the Southern Andes, from Venezuela, and from
Central America. Although nowhere forming continuous
132 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
forests, but growing in isolated clumps or intermingled
with other plants, the palms are amongst the most char-
acteristic and useful members of the vegetable kingdom.
Such are the tagua, whose melon-shaped pods contain the
hard grains known as " vegetable ivory " ; the Carludovica
pahnata, the ribs of whose fan-shaped leaves supply the
material of the costly " panama hats " ; the corneto and
wax-palm, the former with plum-like fruits growing in
enormous clusters, weighing up to 200 lbs., the latter
with a straight and slender stem, which yields as mucli
as 24 lbs. of a waxy substance. In the Central Cor-
dillera these palms range up to over 10,000 feet, and
the same altitude is reached by the tree-ferns, also a
numerous family applied to a variety of purposes. With
the stems of some placed side by side, like railway
sleepers, are constructed those empalisados, " palisade
roads," without which certain marshy districts would be
impassable.
Amongst the numerous medicinal plants is the cedron,
said to be even a better specific against agues than the
chinchona, of which there are several varieties. Other
more or less characteristic forms are the racaclia, known
as the celery of the Andes ; the hefaria, or American
alpine rose, resembling the rhododendron, and ranging
up to 11,000 feet; dye-woods like those of Brazil and
Campeachy ; the magnificent red cedar, and orchids in
great variety. The finest of these have already been
nearly extirpated by the collectors, and are also indirectly
the cause of great havoc amongst the splendid forest
growths, that give them shelter. Mr. Albert Millican
tells us that in two months he caused the destruction of
4000 large trees in order to secure about 10,000
specimens of the superb Odonto glossum}
^ Travels and Adventures of an Orch id-Hunter.
COLOMBIA 133
Fauna
Tliere is reason to believe that some of the huge
extiuct animals — megatheriums, glyptodons, taxodons,
horses of earlier types, mastodons — which formerly
abounded in Colombia, survived till comparatively recent
times, and in any case were almost certainly associated
with primitive man. Mr. R B. "Wliite records the dis-
covery of the complete skeleton of a mastodon in the
paved stone channel of a salt -spring near Concordia,
where it had evidently been overwhelmed by an enormous
landslip. He also refers to the necklaces from Indian
graves made of the molar-fangs of mastodons, so well
preserved that they could scarcely have been the fossil
teeth of long-extinct animals dug up by the natives.^
Of the living fauna both the mammals and most of
the birds belong, like the plants, to the same genera or
species as those inhabiting the surrounding lands. Such
^ "Notes on the Aboriginal Races of the North-West Provinces of
South America," in Jour. Anthrop. Soc. (1884), p. 244.
134 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHV AND TRAVEL
are the puma, jaguar, sloth, ant-eater, tapir, peccary, apes,
king vulture, eagles, toucans, and humming-birds. Of
the last-mentioned lovely little creatures Mr. Simons
discovered as many as five distinct species on the Santa
Marta heights, and these uplands are also noted for the
prodigious multitudes of gorgeous butterflies which hover,
like iridescent clouds, above their seaward slopes. A
remarkable feature of animal life in these regions is the
curious habit of some species to confine themselves to
certain limited areas, beyond which they never range.
Thus no venomous snake is met on the slopes of the
Cordilleras above the altitude of 6000 feet, while in
some districts the swarms of mosquitoes are abruptly
arrested at a given line without any apparent reason.
Inhabitants
From the extensive surveys carried on for many years,
especially in the old gold-mining provinces, it is evident
that before the Conquest a certain measure of culture
was far more widely diffused amongst the Colombian
populations than has hitherto been supposed. But the
Chibchas alone had developed powerful political states,
and to this circumstance may be attributed the oblivion
into which other smaller but no less civilised groups
have fallen. Such were the Coconucos^ and others of tlie
Popayan district towards the Ecuador frontier, who had
made some progress in the arts under Peruvian influences,
as shown by the numerous Quichua terms in their
language. Such were also the civilised Guanos of the
Sogamoso valley, and especially the Nutahi and Tahami
nations of the present department of Antioquia, who
had in some respects surpassed the Chibchas themselves.
* Illustrated on p. 173.
COLOMBIA 135
The Cultured Peoples — The Chibchas
Of the Chibchas the proper national name appears to
nave been Muysca, literally " body-five," that is " man,"
in reference to the ten fingers and toes of the extremities
used in counting up to twenty. Hence in their vigesimal
system Muysca came also to mean twenty, that is, all the
fingers and toes of the human body. This circumstance
alone shows that they had made some intellectual pro-
gress beyond most of their neighbours, whose arithmetic
was limited to five, or even two. Although not so far
advanced as the Quichuas, they deservedly rank amongst
the cultured peoples of the New World. They con-
structed paved highways, threw light but durable sus-
pension-bridges across the river gorges, erected stone
shrines to the gods, carved their effigies also in stone,
were skilled weavers, potters, and dyers, made use of
weights and measures, and were even credited with a
currency in the form of gold discs. In any case they
excelled in the working of the precious metal, which was
both cast and wrought into all kinds of fantastic orna-
ments, dis})laying nuich imagination in the designs and
technical skill in the execution. The Chibcha territory
comprised not only the Cundinamarca plateau between
the Magdalena and the Suma Paz range, but also the
uplands of the Eastern Cordillera as far as the Sierra de
]\Ierida. But this extensive domain was divided between
two rival chiefs, the Zvpa and the Zaqiie, i.e. rulers of
the " south " and " north," who were seldom at peace,
and were lioth at last overwhelmed by the Conquistadores
while engaged in an exceptionally fierce struggle for the
supremacy over Muyscaland. The Chibcha language is
said to be extinct, and the Chibcha people, who numbered
over a million before their reduction, have long l^een
ilUXSCAS.
COLOMBIA 137
merged in the common Hispano-American nationality of
Colombia.
Throughout the whole of the cultural zone are scattered
great numbers of hitacas (guacas) or sepulchral mounds,
some of which are over 40 feet high, and often contain
great stores of gold and precious stones. These abound
especially in the auriferous Antioquia districts, where the
huaqueros, as the plunderers of the huacas are called,
have occasionally extracted treasure to the value of
several thousand pounds sterling from a single grave.
One opened about 1830 yielded £3600 worth of gems,
and Mr. White had personal knowledge of three burrows
"containing gold ornaments to the amount of £4000,
£8000, and £13,000 respectively."^
Primitive Mining Process
In this part of the country the auriferous quartz-reefs
had already been tapped by the natives in pre-Columbian
times. But the process everywhere adopted by them
was peculiar, and might be described as a method devised
to yield the least returns for the greatest expenditure of
labour. Shafts were sunk, some to a depth of 160 or
180 feet, down to the lodes, but no side galleries were
ever opened, so that when the lode where struck was
exhausted, or proved barren, another shaft was sunk a
few yards off, and so on. In the northern districts of
Antioquia the workings were very extensive, and thou-
sands of hands must have been employed upon them.
They were continued for some time after the arrival of
the whites in a more intelligent way, and Mr. E. J.
Chibas tells us that these early Spanish mines have lately
been re-discovered, and are now being worked afresh with
^ loc. cit. p. 247.
138 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
good prospects.^ All the implements used by the natives
for mining and all other purposes were of stone, except
in the Popayan district, where considerable quantities of
obsidian knives and other tools have been found. These
were supposed to have been imported from Guatemala,
and thus to prove regular intercourse with Central
America, until the obsidian was traced to the neighbouring
Purace volcano by Dr. Stlibel and Mr. White.
The Wild Tribes— The Goajiros
Elsewhere in Colombia the passage from the cultural
to the cultureless zone was as abrupt as in other parts ol'
South America. The Faezes, the Chocos with the kindred
Baudos, Tados, and Noanamas, the Catios, Cunas, and
others of the uplands, the Pacific and Caribbean coastlands,
as well as the Mitues, Bctoyes, Uitotos, Carizoncs, Miranhas,
Orejones, Piajes, and Encabellados of the inland plains,
were and mostly still are in a state of nature. Many
were undoubtedly cannibals who, like the African Mang-
battus, "fattened their captives for the table," and the
habits of some were so repulsive that the Spaniards con-
sidered themselves justified in ruthlessly exterminathig
them. Even the impartial Cieza de Leon, who often
denounces his fellow - countrymen for their atrocious
treatment of the natives, speaks with approval of the
barbarous way the savages of the Aburro valley were
disposed of. " The detestation we conceived for these
Indians was such that we hung them and their women
by their hair to the boughs of trees, and left their bodies
there, while amidst grievous moans their souls went down
to hell." Wholesale butcheries undoubtedly took place,
while hundreds of thousands were enslaved and "used
1 The Engineering Magazine, Oct. 1898.
COLOMl'.IA
139
up " in tlie service of their new masters, with the result
that the whole population, estimated by some at about
8,000,000 (probal)ly :!,000,000 in thJ thickly peopled
departments of Canca and Antioquia alone), fell soon
after the Conc[uest
to less than one
million. Many were
too paralysed to
offer any resistance,
and many more
threw themselves
over the cliffs, thus
perishing voluntar-
ily rather than fall
into the hands of
the invaders. But
some retaliated, and
in the Antioquia
district poisoned the
salt - springs so
effectually that they
remain poisoned to
this day. The
springs were covered
with the branches
of the doiicel, a kind
of " upas tree
^ r.OA.TIRO.S.
different from the
lietter known manzanillo, and the water percolating
through became so excessively poisonous " that after a
lapse of 300 years this vegetable matter still retains its
venomous properties . . . and I have seen three horses
killed in one night from drinking at one of these poisoned
springs" (White, p. 251). It may be added that when
140 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TJiAVEL
preparing a deadly virus from the blood of a species of
frog, some of the wild tribes were in the habit of trying
its efficacy on their old women.
From the charge of cannibalism and of other de-
grading practices should be exempted the Goajiros, who
gave their name to the peninsula, where they have
hitherto maintained their political independence, and
still preserve the same tribal and social institutions as
at the time of the discovery. They engage chiefly in
turtle-fishing and horse-breeding, and avoid all contact
with the outer world, except at the frontier station of
Rio Hacha, where they come to exchange the products
of the country for manufactured goods. The neighbouring
Aruacos of the Santa Marta heights appear to be also
somewhat in advance of the wild tribes, for they till the
land and raise crops of sugar, bananas, potatoes, and coca.
The present Colombian nationality results from a
fusion in varying proportions of aborigines, especially the
Chibchas, Popayans, and Antioquians, with the whites
from various parts of Spain, including a considerable
number of baptized Jews. This Semitic element appears
to be still conspicuous, especially in the department of
Antioquia, which has always been noted for the thrift
and industry of its inhabitants. Unity is imparted to
all the settled populations by the exclusive use of the
Spanish language, and by a common administration which
in recent years has shown a remarkal)le tendency towards
centralisation.
Topography
This centralising tendency is seen even in the dis-
tribution of the population, which is concentrated in
large urban centres to a much greater extent, both
relatively and absolutely, than in the neighbouring States
COLOMBIA
141
of Venezuela and Ecuador. From the subjoined table it
will be seen that, besides the capital, there are several
places with over 20,000 inhabitants, while those ex-
ceeding 5000 may be numbered by the score : —
Santa F6 cle Bogota
Medellin .
Barranquilla
Socorro
Cartagena .
Bucaramanga
Chiquinquira
Soata
Puente Nacional
Call .
Palmira
Neiva
Velez
Sogamoso .
Maiiizales .
La Mesa .
Sonson
Sanjil
Cucuta
Jiron
Pasto
Duitaraa .
Aguadas .
Rionegro .
Chief Towns of Colombia
120,000
45,000
40,000
25,000
23,000
22,000
21,000
18,000
16,000
16,000
15,000
15,000
15,000
15,000 ^
15,000 {
14,000 j
14,000 I
14,000 I
13,000 I
13,000 j
13,000
13,000
13,000
13,000
Pesca
13,000
Paipa
13,000
Buga
13,000
Ipiales
13,000
Ibague
13,000
Moiiiquira
13,000
Miraflores .
12,000
Zipaquira .
12,000
Guarno
12.000
Popayan .
10,000
Aiitioquia
10,000
Sabaiialargu
10,000
Jenezano .
10,000
Pamplona .
10,000
Espinal
10,000
Fredonia .
10,000
Yarumal .
10,000
Tunja
8,000
Carmen
8,000
Santa Marta
6,000
Savanilla .
6,000
Buenaventura
6,000
Honda
6,000
Santa F6 de Bogota, or simply Bogotd, capital of the
State, stands on a ramifying tributary of the Rio Funza,
about 12 miles south-east of BacatA, the old capital of
the southern Chibchas, from which it takes its name.
Before its destruction by the Spaniards Bacata was said
to contain 20,000 houses, and if so it must have been as
large a city as its successor now is. The new capital,
founded by Quesada soon after the Conquest on a
COLOMBIA
14:^
pleasanter and more salubrious site near the foot of the
Suraa Paz Eange, 8680 feet above sea-level, has been a
chief centre of Spanish culture throughout colonial and
later times. Besides a national university, it possesses a
valuable library of over 50,000 volumes, an observatory,
a picture gallery^ and several learned institutions. But
its prosperity ha? been greatly hampered by the lack of
MAIN STREET OF BOGOTA : LADIES WEARING MANTILLAS.
easy communications with the surrounding lands. To
remedy this defect three railway schemes have been
taken in hand, one running north to the Sogamoso con-
lluence, another north-west to the Eio Negro confluence,
and a third south-west to the Popayan district for
Ecuador. The first section of this important line is
already completed as far as Girardot on the Upper Mag-
dalena. Some distance above this place lies the riverine
144
coMPENr)iu:\r of geography and travel
station of JSleiva, founded in 1540 at the confluence of
the tributary from which it takes its name, but after its
destruction by the Indians removed 1 5 miles lower down
to a point which marks the head of the upper navigation
for small steamers.
Honda, at the rapids, where the upper navigation
MAIN KOAD, HONDA TO BOGOTA.
begins and the lower stops, was in colonial days the
central depot for distributing the Euroj^ean merchandise
forwarded from Carthagena by the ]\Iagdalena for the
Bogota and I'opayan districts. Since the construction
of the railway which turns the rapids and has its termini
at Las Yer/uas and ^Irrancapliima above and l)elow Honda,
COLOMBIA 145
this place has lost its importance. Near the source of
the Sogamoso, which traversed the territory of the
northern Chibchas, stood their capital, Hunsa, now re-
placed by Tunja, capital of the department of Boyaca.
Sogamoso, which gives its name to the river, is also a
historical place, which perpetuates the memory of the
Sogamwci, or High Priest of the Chibcha people. He
resided at Iraca, close by, where was the richest temple
in all the land, a huge wooden structure covered all over
with plates of gold, but accidentally destroyed by fire
during its sack by the Spaniards. The few days that
the conflagration lasted were extended in the popular
imagination to several years.
Iraca, holy city of the Chibchas, has in a sense been
replaced by Chiquinquira, holy city of the present
Colombians, which lies in the same fluvial basin a little
north of Lake Enqueue. Here is one of the most famous
" Miraculous Virgins " in South America, which is a
perennial source of wealth to the place, being visited in
some years by as many as 60,000 devout and generous
pilgrims. In the same romantic district, south-east of
Tunja, stands the historical town of Boyaca, also a place
venerated by all Colombian patriots, for here Bolivar
gained the decisive victory which secured the independ-
ence of the country in 1819. Other historical events
are commemorated by the flourishing city of Socorro, on
the Eio Suarez, capital of the neighbouring department
of Santander, and scene of the first revolutionary move-
ments in 1781. Ocana also, in the same district, will
always be remembered as the place where was signed the
Treaty of 1828, which dissolved the transient union of
the three allies — Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador.
But Ocana has other claims to consideration, for it
occupies a most convenient and healthy position ;3820
VOL. I L
146
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
feet above sea-level about the sources of the Catatumbo,
which affords direct access to the Maracaibo basin, and a
natural seaward outlet for the produce of the north-
eastern departments independent of the insalubrious
lowlands about the Lower Magdalena and its delta.
Barranquilla, on the chief navigable branch of the
delta, is at present the most important centre of the
GATEWAY OP" CAUTALiENA.
foreign trade of the country. It is connected, by a
railway 20 miles long, with the exposed seaport of
Savanilla, and need fear no rival except Cartagena, which
lies a little farther west on the only good natural harbour
in Colombia. In colonial times " Cartagena de las Indias "
enjoyed a complete monopoly of all commercial inter-
course with Spain, but was a sealed port for the rest of
the world, and as if to emphasise this fact, the Central
Government converted it into a fortress of immense
COLOMBIA 147
strength at an outlay of no less than £12,000,000.
Nevertheless it was nearly ruined during the siege of
1815, and, having lost its exclusive privileges with the
fall of the colonial system, has never recovered its former
prosperity. The harbour, formed by a group of islets, on
one of which stands the town, is well sheltered, and has
a depth of 60 feet, but is of difficult access. Santa
Marta, the only other seaport on the Caribbean Sea, was
founded by Quesada at the foot of the Sierra to which it
gives its name in the year 1525, and is consequently the
oldest Spanish settlement in Colombia.
On the almost uninhabited Pacific seaboard the only
outlet for trade is Buenaventura, founded in 1821 on an
islet in a deep and well-sheltered inlet a little to the
south of the San Juan estuary.
In the Cauca basin Popayan, near the source of the
main stream, about 6000 feet above sea-level, dates from
the year 1536, when it was founded by some of Belal-
cazar's people. Although a small place, it claims to be a
chief centre of modern culture, a sort of " Colombian
Athens," which, however, suffers from the want of good
communications, though standing on the old historical
route to Ecuador.
Lower down the Cauca valley several considerable
centres of population have sprung up in the mining and
agricultural districts along the main stream and some
of the lateral river valleys. Such are Call, one of the
pleasantest towns in Colombia, founded in 1536 within
60 miles of the Pacific at Buenaventura, with which
seaport it is connected by rail ; Manizales, founded
in 1848 at the junction of two main routes over
the Central Cordillera, a thriving centre of the gold and
stock-breeding industries, and already the chief trading-
place in South Antioquia; and Mcdellin, present capital
COLOMBIA 149
of the department of Antioquia, and second city in the
repubUc, situated in the rich Aborra valley 4860 feet
above the sea. Medellin has completely eclipsed the
much older city of Antioquia, which gives its name to
the whole region, and dates from the year 1541. Can-
delaria, as Medellin was at first called, was founded in
1674, but remained little more than a rural hamlet till
after the Eevolution, when it increased rapidly with the
development of mining operations. It is now the chief
centre of the gold interest, with a local mint, a depart-
mental university, and several technical schools.
On the almost uninhabitable lowlands below Antioquia
there are no towns or groups of population except a few
little riverine stations, such as MaganquS and Tacaloa,
which marks the point where the Cauca and Magdalena
converge in a common channel.
The Discovery — Conquest and Settlement
After the first survey of the seaboard, as far as the
Gulf of Darien, by Bastida and his pilot, Juan de la Cosa,
in 1496, it was again visited by Columbus in 1498.
The Pacific coast was traced by Andagoya in 1522, but
no attempt to penetrate inland was made till 1530,
when the ferocious Alfinger overran and wasted the
present departments of Magdalena and Santander. He
was soon followed by Heredia, Cesar, Vadillo, and Eobledo,
who discovered the plateaux of Antioquia and the rich
Cauca valley. Then by an extraordinary coincidence,
unique in the history of exploration and adventure, the
Chibcha plateau was simultaneously reached in 1538 by
three separate expeditions starting independently from
three opposite points — Quesada's from Santa Marta on
the coast at the foot of the Sierra, Belalcazar's from
150 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
Quito by the Popayan route, and Fredemann's from Core,
at the neck of the Paraguana Peninsula in the present
Venezuela. Arriving thus unexpectedly in the very
citadel of El Dorado, the leaders were at first disposed
to fall foul of each other, but more prudent counsels
prevailing, they decided at last to divide the spoils
between them. Some idea may be formed of the general
character of these pioneers from the language of an early
writer, who describes one of them as a combination of
quicksilver and lightning. Like the former, he drew to
himself all the precious metals found in the houses ; like
the latter, he destroyed the houses themselves. And
thus began the " settlement " of New Granada, as the
whole region was first called by Quesada, after his native
place in Andalusia.
Colonial Administration
This settlement brought nothing but the direst
calamities on the unhappy aborigines, who were handed
over to encomenderos, who were commissioned to exploit
land and people on behalf of the Crown and in their
own interest. These ministers of an ignoble policy
swept the helpless natives into the mines or on to the
plantations. They perished in multitudes, while the
more refractory groups were extirpated root and branch,
so that nine- tenths of the inhabitants disappeared in a
few generations.
Then came the turn of the settlers, who, whether
full-blood or half-castes, had now to submit to the narrow
system of monopolies and favouritism inspired by the
jealous policy of the mother country. The right of
trading at all became the exclusive privilege of Spaniards,
who were alone permitted to export the produce of the
COLOMBIA 151
land from Carthagena, and import such wares as Spain
could supply in exchange. This degrading system, de-
spite of occasional administrative changes, was practi-
cally maintained down to the period of the Eevolution.
The Presidency constituted in 1565 became a Vice-
royalty in 1719, on which in 1740 was conferred the
title of Nuevo Reino de Granada (New Kingdom of
Granada).
The Revolution — Present Regime
Symptoms of unrest had already made themselves felt
in 1781, when local revolts w^ere with difficulty repressed
by slight alleviations of intolerable burdens. But the
fiames of discontent extinguished in one place broke out
in another, until the whole land was enveloped in the
great conflagration which began in 1810, and was not fully
spent till 1819 under circumstances already described in
the previous chapter. The Eepublic of New Granada, as
constituted by the solution of the Triple Alliance after
the Treaty of Ocana (1828), adopted in 1861 a federal
constitution under the title of United States of New
Granada, with nine confederate States. Then, after further
vicissitudes, centralising tendencies manifested themselves,
and by the new Constitution, promulgated in 1886, the
autonomy of the nine States was abolished, and they
became simple departments of the Be^niblic of Colombia,
as it is now officially called. The former presidents are ,
merely governors of the departments directly nomin-
ated l;)y the President of the Eepublic, who is himself
chosen by electoral colleges for six years. There are
eight ministers or " secretaries " responsible to Congress,
which comprises a senate of twenty-seven members (three
for each of the nine departments), and a House of Eepre-
.^entatives, with at present sixty- six members, that is, one
152 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
for every 50,000 inhabitants, returned for four years by
universal suffrage. This last Constitution seems to have
worked fairly well till 1900, when public order was
again disturbed by a serious revolt.
Religion — Education
As in Venezuela, the religion of the State is Eoman
Catholicism, tolerance being extended to all others, so
far as they conform to the law and to the general
precepts of Christian morality. Primary education is
free but not compulsory, and provision is made for higher
instruction by a national university, four departmental
colleges, thirty-four public colleges, and fifteen normal
schools. But in 1895 the total attendance, including
primary schools, scarcely exceeded 95,000, instead of
about 300,000, which would be a fair proportion for
the whole population.
Natural Resources — Mineral Wealth
So varied and abundant are its natural resources,
both above and below ground, that, under a firm and
enlightened administration Colombia, despite the insalu-
brious climate of many districts, might soon become one
of the most prosperous regions in the world. It supplies
nearly all the platinum as well as the very finest emeralds
brought to the European market, while gold-bearing reefs
and washings occur almost everywhere, the total annual
yield being about £650,000, and the yield of gold and
silver since the discovery nearly £150,000,000. In
1891 as many as 4960 mines of all kinds were open,
including 3398, 794, and 571 of gold in the three de-
partments of Antioquia, Tolima, and Cauca respectively,
bjMBIA
!
— ,
JSf
1
SC?
COLOMBIA
/^\
COLOMBIA 153
besides 32 of emeralds, 14 of cinnabar, 7 of manganese,
and several of platinum, silver, copper, lead, mercury,
iron, coal, and salt. Extensive coalfields and reservoirs
of petroleum occur in several districts, so that few regions
can compare with Colombia for the astonishing variety
of its underground products. Scarcely less varied are
those of its forests and cultivated lands, including coffee,
cocoa, tobacco, sugar, vegetable-ivory, rubber, dye-woods,
plantains, wheat, and maize. But at present only a small
part of the country is under tillage, and the development
of its agricultural resources is greatly retarded by the
lack of good communications. In 1897 only 400 miles
of railways had been opened, and only 270 miles were
in progress, while the so-called roads are for the most
part mere mule-tracks.
CHAPTER YI
ECUADOR
Extent, Boundaries, Areas, and Populations — Relief of the Land — The
Eastern Cordillera and the Pacific Coast liange — The Avenue of
Volcanoes — Chimborazo — Tunguragna — Altar — Cotopaxi — Hydro-
graphy — The Kios Guayas and Esmeraldas — The Rio Pastasa — The
Rio Napo — Climate— Flora— Fauna— Inhabitants— The Quitus and
Caras— The Jivaros— The Zaparos— The Piojes— History— Colonial
Rule— The Republic— Topography— Resources — Land Tenure— Ad-
ministration — The Galapagos Lslands.
Extent, Boundaries, Areas, and Populations
Ecuador, smallest of the Andean republics, takes its
name from the equator, by which its northern provinces
are intersected. On the west it is limited by the Pacific
Ocean for a distance of nearly 500 miles between
Colombia and Peru, the conterminous northern and
southern states. The same states, together with Brazil,
converge and even overlap about the eastern frontiers,
where extensive tracts have formed matter of contention
between all these countries during the nineteenth century
without any prospect of immediate settlement. So vast
are these almost uninhabited tracts, that, according as the
boundaries may be eventually laid down, the superficial
area of Ecuador may vary as much as from about 100,000
to 250,000 and even 300,000 square miles. But the
ECUADOR
155
interests involved are, at least for the present, far from
commensurate with these dimensions, and the negotiations
are carried on in such a listless way that, whenever the
diplomatists happen to agree upon some knotty point,
the Congress of one or other of the litigants is sure to
reject their decision. Thus a Boundary Treaty, arranged
between Peru and Ecuador in 1890, was amended by
Peru in 1893, and revoked by Ecuador in 1894, and
since then absolutely nothing had been done down to the
close of the century to settle any one of the territorial
questions in dispute.
It may be stated in general that towards the east
Ecuador claims nothing beyond a conventional line drawn
from Tabatinga, last Brazilian station on the Solimocns
(Amazon), northwards across the lower courses of the
Putumayo, Napo, and Japura to the equator, this line,
which coincides with the meridian of 70°, 30' W. Gr.,
forming the boundary towards Brazil, and presenting two
fixed points for determining the southern and northern
frontiers towards Peru and Colombia. But, pending its
acceptance and the settlement of the other points in dis-
pute, the area of Ecuador may be taken at about 156,000
square miles, with a population of 1,450,000 distributed
over the seventeen provinces (including the Galapagos
Archipelago) as under : —
Provinces.
Area in sq. miles.
Population
(est. 1898).
Carchi
1550
36,000
Imbabura .
2500
68,000
Pichincha .
6450
205,000
Leon
2750
109,000
Tunguragua
Cliimborazo
1750
3100
103,000
122,000
Bolivar
1200
43,000
Canar (Azogues
.
1570
64,000
Carry forward
. 20,870
750,000
156
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
Provinces.
irea in sq. miles.
Population
(est. 1898).
Brought forward .
20,870
750,000
Azuay
.
4,000
132,000
Loja
3,800
66,000
Esineraldas
5,660
14,600
Manabi .
8,170
64,100
Los Rios .
2,310
32,800
Quay as .
8,500
98,100
Oro .
25
32,600
Oriente .
100,000
260,000
Galapagos
2,970
200
Tota
1
. 156,305
1,450,400
In Ecviador the proportion of full -blood and inde-
pendent aborigines is far greater than in any other
Hispano- American state, Bolivia not excepted. The
" whites," which in official language has a somewhat
elastic meaning, are "estimated" at about 100,000,
although " it is said that such a thing as a Spanish
family of perfectly pure descent is not to be found in the
country " (Whymper, p. 178). The Mestizos are reckoned
at 300,000, while all the rest are classed as "Indians."
A chief difference between the whites and Mestizos is that
the former are of Spanish speech, while many of the latter,
as well as some of the Indians, speak both their own
language and Quichua, which, in the Andean regions,
has become the lengua general, corresponding to the livgoa
gcral of Brazil.
It is also to be noticed, that a distinction is drawn
between these Quichua -speaking natives, who are also
salt-eating semi-Christians, and to whom the term "Indios"
is restricted, and the " Infieles " or " Aucas," that is, the
real wild tribes, infidels, traitors, rebels, in fact every-
thing that is bad, who eat no salt, are pagans, speak no
Quichua, and recognise no authority except that of their
own chiefs. They occupy the greater part of the
ECUADOR 157
province of Oriente, that is, about two -thirds of the
whole country, comprising the debatable lands sloping to
the Amazon, while the more or less settled populations
are mainly confined to the western uplands between the
Amazon basin and the Pacific Ocean, that is, the Ecua-
doi'ean Andes.
Relief of the Land — The Eastern Cordillera and Pacific
Coast Range
In the history of geodetic studies Ecuador holds a
somewhat eminent position. It was visited in the
eighteenth century by a party of savants — La Condaraine,
the brothers Alloa, and others — who were commissioned
by the French Academy of Sciences to measure an arc of
the meridian on this section of the Andean plateaux and
Cordilleras, which were at that time supposed to be the
highest on the globe. Besides the measurement of the
arc much other useful work was accomplished, and since
then the country has been explored by several other
distinguished men of science, notably A. von Humboldt
and Boupland early in the nineteenth century, and later
by Villavicencio, Eeiss and Stiibel, T. Wolf, and Mr. E.
Whymper.
Yet the main features of its relief are still matters of
controversy. Between the Knot of Loja towards the
Peruvian frontier, and the Knot of Pasto within the
Colombian frontier, the Andean system is commonly
supposed to develop two somewhat parallel cordilleras,
converging at both points, and thus enclosing the elevated
Ecuadorean plateau between two continuous mountain
barriers. About the existence of the eastern branch,
which is here often called the " Eoyal Cordillera," and
traverses the country for over 300 miles in the direction
158 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
from south to north, there can be no doubt. It does
not, however, form an unbroken divide between the
Pacific and Amazon basins, for it is pierced by the
head-streams of at least two of the Amazonian affluents,
the Pastasa and the Paute, rising within 35 miles of the
Pacific, far to the west of the eastern range.
The very existence of the western " parallel chain "
is denied by Mr. Whymper, who, however, admits the
presence of a parallel ridge, which he calls the " Pacific
Eange of Ecuador," a range 65 miles long by 18 to 20
wide, enclosed on the east and on the south by the
valley of the Chimbo affluent of the Kio Guayas, with a
general elevation in some places of 10,000 feet, above
which rise peaks 13,000 to 14,000, and probably even
15,000 feet high. This range, which on the Pacific side
is densely wooded up to the crests, while almost bare of
vegetation on its eastern slopes, is crossed on the route
from the coast to the interior by a pass, which at Tambo
Gobierno attains an extreme height of 10,417 feet above
sea-level, and, when seen from the upper slopes of
Chimborazo, presents a panoramic view of countless
peaks and ramifying crests — " valleys, vallons, dells, and
dales, backed by the ocean, rising above the haze which
obscures the fiat coastland " (Whymper, p. 324). It is
separated on the north by a large and deep valley from
the huge mass on which stands Chimborazo, culminating
summit of Ecuador, and would therefore appear not to
belong to the Andean system proper. At least it " lies
outside the main chain of the Andes," and " has nothing
to do with the 'two parallel cordillers'" {ib. p. 336).
At its western foot is the somewhat narrow strip of
Pacific lowlands, and on the east stretches the central
plateau of Ecuador, which is here furrowed by numerous
small river vallevs converging; towards the head of tlie
ECUADOE 159
Pdo Chimbo at an altitude of 10,000 feet, or about 1000
feet more than the mean height of the plateau. Owing
to this general elevation of the land, the numerous peaks
and cones that rise several thousand feet higher do not
present the same Alpine character that many smaller
masses do when viewed from lower levels. The trans-
verse ridges, which have been compared to the broken
rungs of a ladder disposed irregularly between the frame-
work, are nowhere seen in clear or sharp outline, and the
whole of the interior is rather hilly than mountainous,
with long stretches of moorland, and broad flat or slightly
undulating plains, the so-called " basins," such as those
of Eiobamba, Machachi, and Tumbaco.
The Avenue of Volcanoes
Thus " the two parallel Cordilleras, which, according
to geographers, are the great features of the country, do
not exist. The axis of the Andes of Ecuador, part of
the backbone of South America, runs nearly north and
south ; and towards the western edge of the main chain
there is a certain sequence of peaks more or less in a
line with each other. On the east of these summits
there is a succession of basins of different dimensions and
of various elevations, and the nearest mountains on the
eastern side occur at irregular' distances. There is no
such thing as one great valley in the interior of Ecuador "
(ib. p. 336). But if the parallel chains have thus to be
removed, the " sequence of peaks " on both sides stands
out all the more conspicuously, and constitutes that
magnificent " avenue of volcanoes " which is unrivalled
for magnitude and sublimity in the whole world. Here
are grouped as many as twenty crests and a much larger
number of peaks, cones, and domes over 15,000 feet high,
SUMMIT OF CHIMBOKAZfi.
ECUADOR
161
and consequently penetrating into the • region of eternal
snows, all rising out of or upon and above the main
chain, and all with the exception of Sara-urcit of igneous
origin. " Here are volcanoes and volcanic productions
in every stage. Innnense plains of volcanic sand,
mountains and vales of tuff and scoriae — in some of the
lower strata of which are embedded numerous animal
remains of the Quaternary period — streams of lava, fields
of pumice, and the great cones themselves ; some extinct,
others smoking and dormant, and one [two] Sangai [and
Cotopaxi] in unceasing activity, all ready to break out
again and devastate the county around them, as they
have so often done before." ^
Subjoined is a table of some of the higher summits in
the western and the eastern ranges, with their heights,
as determined by MM. Eeiss and Sttibel and Mr.
"Whymper : —
Western Summits.
Eastern Summits.
H
eight ill ft.
Heiglit in ft.
Chimborazo
•20,498
Cotopaxi .
19,613
Illiniza
17,405
Cayanibe .
19,186
Carihuairazo
16,515
Antisana .
19,385
Cotocachi .
16,301
Altar
17,730
Corazon .
15,871
Sangay .
17,464
Guagua-Pichincha
15,918
Tunguragua
16,690
liucu-Pichincha
15,542
Sincholagua
16,365
Kuminagui
15,607
Sara-urcu .
15,749
Mojanda .
11,088
Chiml
Imbabura .
)orazo
15,033
Although lying on or about the equator, several of
these giants are not only snow-clad, but also scored by
glaciers, which feed numerous torrents tumbling down to
the plains. Such are Cayambe, Cotopaxi, and especially
^ Alfred Siinson, Travels m the IVilds of Ecuador, p. 43.
VOL. I M
162 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGltAPHY AND TRAVEL
Chimborazo, first ascended in 1879 by Whymper, who
found that glaciers are discharged by all the upper
combes encircling the ice -capped cratar. Others have
even in recent times been the theatre of tremendous
convulsions, such as that of 1868, when whole towns
and villages were levelled with the ground, and 50,000
persons perished in the Cotocachi and Imbabura districts.
In 1896 the towns of Montecristi, Portoviejo, and Jipi-
japa were destroyed by an earthquake, the effects of
which were felt over an area estimated by Mr, Dolby
Tyler at 55,000 square miles in extent.^
Tunguragua — Altar
Conspicuous amongst the snowy cones of the eastern
range are the wooded Tunguragua and Capac-uru, " King
of Mountains," the Altar of the Spaniards, wliich fourteen
years before the conquest was said to be still somewhat
higher than Chimborazo. But it has since collapsed, and
now presents the appearance of a superb jagged and
rocky crown, whose dark-blue barrancas, that is, rents or
fissures in its snowy mantle, offer a spectacle the eye is
never wearied of gazing upon.
South of Altar rises the ever restless Sangay, and
away to the north the superb Antisana, at whose foot is
the hacienda or wayside inn immortalised by Humboldt's
visit, at an altitude of 13,300 feet above sea-level, that
is to say, over 1000 feet higher than the Peak of
Teneriffe. This hacienda, however, is not, as is often
stated, the highest abode of man in South America, the
Bolivian mining town of Potosi standing about 20 feet
higher.
1 Geogr. Jour. (1896), vol. ii. p. 178-
ECUADOH 16;3
Cotopaxi
On the eastern horizon over against Illiniza towers
the majestic Cotopaxi, which is without a rival amongst
the active volcanoes of the Old World. In the perfect
symmetry of its outlines Cotopaxi is unsurpassed not
only by any South American volcano, but has elsewhere
no equal except perhaps Fuji-yama in Japan. " It is
turned as if with the lathe," said the natives to Humboldt,
while Orton describes it as a huge cone rising out of the
valley, its sides deeply furrowed by the torrents of slush
which have so often been vomited from the crater. The
cone itself is about 6000 feet high, its eastern side being
snow-clad, while its western is nearly bare, a contrast due
to the Atlantic trade -winds which, sweeping up the
Amazons valley, deposit their moisture in the form of
snow on the slopes facing eastwards.
Cotopaxi was for the first time scaled in 1880 right
up to the crater by Mr. Whymper, who, contrary to
Halls' experience, found that much of the ascent was a
mere walk, no climbing being necessary. He describes
the crater as. an amphitheatre 2300 feet from north to
south and 1650 from east to west, with a rugged crest
surrounded by overhanging cliffs, some snow-clad, others
apparently encrusted with sulphur. " Cavernous recesses
belched forth smoke, the sides of the cracks and chasms
no more than half-w^ay down shone with ruddy light, and
so it continued on all sides right down to the bottom,
precipice alternating with slope, and the fiery fissures
becoming more numerous as the bottom was approached.
At the bottom, probably 1200 feet below us, there was
a ruddy circular spot, about one-tenth of the diameter of
the crater, the pipe of the volcano, its channel of com-
munication with lower regions, filled with incandescent
ECUADOR 165
if not molten lava, glowing and burning, with flames
travelling to and fro over its surface, and scintillations
scattering as from a wood -fire, lighted by tongues of
flickering flame which issued from the cracks in the
surrounding slopes" {op. cit. p. 153).
Steam undoubtedly plays a large part in the con-
vulsions of Cotopaxi, and the quantity emitted is occa-
sionally prodigious. From the slopes of Cayambe, at a
distance of about 60 miles to the north-east, Mr.
Whymper saw a volume of steam ejected, which formed
" a continuous body of not less than sixty cubic miles of
cloud. If this vast volume, instead of issuing from a
free vent, had found its passage barred, Cotopaxi on that
morning might have been effaced, and the whole continent
might have quivered under an explosion rivalling or
surpassing the mighty catastrophe at Krakatoa." Heaps
of ruins, piled up during the lapse of ages, are scattered
for miles round the base of the mountain, among them
great boulders 20 feet square. Cotopaxi is the great
pumice-producing volcano. The new road up the valley
cuts through a lofty hill formed by the successive erup-
tions ; and the section, presenting alternate layers of
mud, ashes, and pumice, is a geological record of the
volcano.
Hydrography— The Rios Guayas and Esmeraldas
If, as is generally supposed, the basins of the central
plateau were formerly a group of upland lakes at varying
altitudes, their contents have long been discharged
through the streams flowing east to the Amazon and
west to the Pacific. The Pacific drainage is effected
by several rivers whose basins lie all witliin the territory
of the republic, but of which two only — Guayas and
Esmeraldas — are of any importance.
166 COMrENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
The Guayas, which collects the surface-waters of an
area estimated at about 14,000 square miles, is formed
by the convergence of a large number of head-streams,
such as the Chimho or YaguacM, which sweeps round
from the eastern slopes of the Pacific range ; the Daule,
which winds through the flat marshy tracts on the right
bank ; and the Babahoyo, which rises in the Pacific range,
and is regarded as the true upper course. Below Bodegas,
the " stores," that is, the depot for goods in transit and
landing-stage for travellers mounting to the plateau, the
main stream expands to a breadth of half a mile, and
at Guayaquil, a little lower down, merges in an estuary,
which is the largest inlet on the west coast of South
America. The Guayas, which is navigable for large
steamers as far as Bodegas, swarms with alligators, and
Mr. Simson tells us that he counted as many as five
hundred basking in the sun on a sandbauk exposed at
low water. The river is of vital importance to Ecuador,
its valley, rough as it is, being almost the only route
which gives access to the Pacific coast.
The Esmeraldas, whose upper course is the Gtialla-
bamha, traverses the plain of Quito in a north-westerly
direction to the little seaport of Esmeraldas below the
Colombian frontier, and is also navigaljle for a short
distance. Its basin has an area of nearly 9000 square
miles, but this route is little used, the country being
mostly uninhabited, and the fiuvial valley obstructed by
a tremendous gorge 2000 feet deep at the base of the
Mqjanda volcano.
The Rio Pastasa
That section of the Amazon, which receives contribu-
tions from the Ecuadorean uplands, flows normally in an
easterly direction as far as Tabatinga un the Brazilian
ECUADOR 167
frontier, and might well serve as a convenient boundary
between Ecuador and Peru. Besides the already men-
tioned Paute, the affluents of this section which traverse
Ecuadorean territory are the Pastasa and the Napo, both
rising on the plateau, and about midway between these
two the Tigre, which has its source on the advanced
out-runners of the Eoyal Cordillera. All three have a
nearly parallel south-easterly trend, and all flow for
most of their course through the wilds of the province
of Oriente, which are still mainly occupied by independent
native tribes classed in Ecuador as " Infieles " or " Aucas."
The Pastasa is formed by the junction of the Patate from
the northern plateau and of the Chamho, which has its
source on the high land of Alausi, and after a winding
course along the western slopes of Sangay and Altar
bends round the base of Tunguragua to the confluence
just above Baiios. From this point the Pastasa flows
through a deep valley with steep sides, down which rush
the Topo, Zitinag, Bio Verde, Bohonaza, and several othei'
torrents descending from the Llanganati heights to the
left bank. The Pastasa strikes the north bank of the
Maranon, as the Amazon is here called, some miles above
the confluence of the Huallaga from Peru, and over 3000
miles from the Atlantic.
The Rio Napo
North of the Bobonaza all the streams having their
source in the Ecuadorean Andes converge to form the
Napo, which may almost take rank with the great
affluents of the Amazon. The chief headwaters of the
main stream, which springs from the eastern slope of
Cotopaxi, are the Curarai, draining the northern slopes
of Llanganati; the Coca, rising between Antisana and
168 COMI'EXDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
Cayainbi : and the Aguarico, descending from the north-
eastern Hanks of Cayainbi. From its source to the
contluence of the Coca, ahnost as large as the main river,
the Napo runs in a rough stony bed at a steep incline ;
but beyond its junction with the Aguarico on the left
and the Curarai on the right, it flows in a smoother but
still rapid current between low wooded banks, and after
a course of 7 5 miles is lost in the waters of the Amazon
500 miles below the Pastasa continence. Here the
Napo is broader than the Thames at London Bridge, and
from its mouth to the Curarai junction presents for
several hundred miles an easy navigable waterway
through the province of Oriente.
Beyond the Xapo follows the Futumayo, the Iqa of
the Brazilians, which, however, rises in Colombia and has
its outflow at S. Antonio in Brazil, while no part of its
course lies in undisputed Ecuadorean territory. The
whole region traversed by these western tributaries of
the Amazon forms a continuation of the southern wood-
lands, which in Peru take the name of la montafia. But
the Ecuadorean montana is more abundantly watered,
for the climate is one of excessive humidity and con-
tinuous rainfall, rendering the few forest tracks often as
impassable as treacherous quagmires. Here the trees
grow to a greater height than on the lower Amazonian
plains, and shoot up perfectly straight from the saturated
soil. Their shady branches are draped with long hoary
mosses and festooned with orchids and other parasitic
plants.
Climate
The succession of vertically superimposed climatic
zones, common to all the western uplands, is greatly
modified in Ecuador by the local conditions. In deter-
ECUADOR 169
mining the general distribvition of heat and moisture the
chief factors are the position of this section of the Andes
and their eastern slopes in respect of the Amazon valley,
and the main trend of the Eoyal Cordillera at right
angles with that valley.
The whole of the montana, that is, the province of
Oriente, together with the eastern slopes of the Cordillera,
comes within the direct influence of the heavily-laden
clouds rolling up from the Atlantic with the perennial
trade-winds. Much of the humidity is discharged on the
Amazonian plains themselves ; but enough remains not
only to keep the montana in a perpetual state of satura-
tion, but also to reach the plateau, where it is precipitated
in the form of snow on all the higher crests, and as rain
lower down the eastern slopes of the Cordillera. The
summits of the great volcanoes are wrapt in dense fog
for months together, and travellers, after long waiting
for a glimpse of their glittering cones, are told that thus
they live year in year out.
On the Pacific slope the rainfall, nowhere heavy,
decreases normally in the direction from north to south,
so that the southern districts about the Guayas estuary,
and the island of Puna at its entrance, come almost within
the Peruvian rainless zone, and may in any case be
described as arid. But here as on the montana the
heats are tropical, with a mean temperature of 79° to
82° Pahr., while on the plateau, as at Quito, Cuenca, and
Ptiobamba, it falls to 58° and even 56° Fahr. The
plateau, being mostly sheltered by the encircling ranges,
is also much drier than the montana, and even at Quito,
which receives some moisture through the Esmeraldas
rift from the Pacific, the annual rainfall averages not
more than 47 inches.
It results from these general remarks that, apart
170 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
from the Alpine heights and the more elevated wintery
paramos, there are in Ecuador three tolerably well-defined
climatic zones, corresponding to the three physical zones
— the montana, essentially tropical, that is, hot and
moist ; the platean, temperate with moderate heat and
rainfall ; and the seaboard, hot and dry. It follows also
that the normal succession of the two seasons — dry
from about June to January, and wet for the rest of the
year — -is less clearly marked in Ecuador than in most
other tropical regions. On the plateau great perturba-
tions are caused by the large number of snowy mountains,"
while on the eastern slopes there is no succession at all.
Here, say the natives, " it rains thirteen months in the
year."
Flora
Thanks to this superabundance of moisture, the
mhanas, that is, the open dry tracts, answering to the
Venezuelan llanos, are confined in Ecuador to the western
lowlands, where they alternate with artificial clearings
for the cultivation of coca, cotton, fruits, and sugar. In the
vast province of Oriente " all is covered by the same
dense, impenetrable forest, where the vegetable kingdom
truly lives a life of struggle for existence, the fittest
living and thriving upon the death and decay of the
weaker " (Simson). But forest growths are by no means
confined to the montana, and extensive wooded tracts
occur on the eastern flanks of the Cordillera, on the west
side of the Pacific range and in the Plsmeraldas basin.
The route from Guayaquil to Quito leads over the spurs
of Chimborazo through sublime mountain scenery and
verdant river valleys, amongst which that of the Chimbo
is especially celebrated. At this elevation the cultivation
of wheat supplants that of the sugar-cane, while cacao
ECUADOR 171
and orange groves have given place, the one to barley,
the other to clover -fields, lucerne, maize, and beans.
Guaranda, at an altitude of 8840 feet, is the centre of
the Peruvian bark trade, vi^hich, however, will here soon
be a thing of the past, as the trees are being rapidly
destroyed by the wasteful way of obtaining the bark.
That of the much -prized Cinchona calisaya is now no
longer to be had, that of C. siicciruhra being alone pro-
curable. This is a majestic tree, growing to a height of
50 or even 60 feet, clothed with bright dark-green oval
leaves, and bearing a white flower with an aromatic
fragrance A fresh stem 5 feet in girth yields 1500 lbs.
of red bark, which, however, during the drying process is
reduced to 800 lbs.
But the most valuable plant in Ecuador is the cacao
tree {Theolroma cacao), which thrives best on the hot
moist lowlands beneath the shade of taller growths.
Hence the low-lying districts of this region are admirably
suited for its cultivation, which has become one of the
chief industries of the inhabitants. Here the white
species, which is the best, still runs wild, and is peculiar
to Ecuador.
Fauna
In Ecuador are represented all the large fauna of the
neighbouring regions. Even the llama ranges as far
north as the Eiobamba district, beyond which it is re-
placed by the mule as a pack-animal. As in Colombia,
a peculiarity of the local fauna, and especially of the
birds and insects, is the curious tendency of certain
species to confine themselves to small areas. Like the
Sierra de Santa ]\Iarta, several of the Great Andes mio;ht
in this respect be described as little independent zoological
kingdoms. Such are Antisana, which has a species of
172 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
ibis {Thcristiciis caudatus) unknown elsewhere; Chimborazo
and Pichincha, each with a peculiar variety of the
humming-bird occurring at an altitude of over 14,000
feet, while on Pichincha Mr. AVhymper also discovered
eight absolutely new species of beetles, Ecuador is
extremely rich in these insects, of which as many as
8000 species have been recorded.
In the eastern woodlands is heard the soft musical
note of the Jlautero or " flute-bird," which is a constant
surprise and delight to travellers in the province of
Oriente. " His song is not quite the same in all in-
dividuals, but may be likened in tone to the most mellow,
sweet-sounding flute ; and the musical correctness of all
his notes is astonishing. He is a very insignificant-
looking, little grayish-coloured bird ; and, I was informed,
always dies in captivity" (Simson, p. 84).
These eastern forests, which are continuous with those
of the Amazonian plains, afford cover to numberless
tapirs, jaguars, pumas, peccaries, venomous snakes in
endless variety, bloodthirsty insect pests, such as
mosquitoes, the red tick, the horrible pium fly, and,
perhaps the greatest plague of all, true vampires in great
variety and abundance. Some of the popular stories
connected with these repulsive winged mammals may be
too highly coloured, but there is no longer any doubt as
to their blood-sucking propensities. " The depredations
of these bloodthirsty imps fall heaviest upon children,
whose blood they seem to have a special liking for. I
have seen a little Zaparo child at Aguano perfectly pale,
ansemic, and debilitated by constant loss of blood from
the head and feet ; and was told of more than one case
of children entirely succumbing to the attacks of vampires.
By the foregoing it will be seen that the depredations of
the vampire are not a mere 'myth of imaginative
ECUADOR
173
travellers/ as Professor Orton, in The Andes and the
Amazons, describes them" {ih. p. 13o).
Inhabitants — The Quitus and Caras
With Ecuador we enter the domain of the Quichua
race, which was already in possession of the northern
COCONUCO INDIAN OF COTOCACHI, ECL'ADOR.
(See the description of this tribe on p. 134.)
coastlands and of the plateau long before the conquest of
the country, begun by the Inca Tupac -Yupanqui, and
completed by his son Huayna-Capac. "Whether the
Quitus, that is, the earliest known inhabitants of the
ancient kingdom of Quitu (Quito), were a brancli of the
Quichua race, is doubtful. But to this connection almost
174 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
certainly belonged the Cava {Caran) people, who over-
threw Quitu, last king of the prehistoric dynasty, from
whom the Quitus and their capital were afterwards
named.
The Caras came traditionally on rafts (balsas), ap-
parently from Peru, formed settlements on the coast
below the Eio Esmeraldas, and thence ascending to the
plateau conquered the kingdom of Quitu. Here they
established the pre-Inca dynasty of the so-called Shyris,
the last of whom, fifteenth in succession from the founder,
fell on the battlefield of Hatuntaqui in 1487, when the
whole region became an integral part of the Peruvian
Empire. Its fusion in the political system of the Incas
was all the more easily effected since the Caras were an
allied race, who spoke a dialect of the Quichua language,
which is still the common speech of a great part of the
inhabitants of the plateau and Pacific seaboard.
The Caras and nearly all the other aborigines of the
uplands have long been merged in the general Mestizo
population, in which the Spanish element is but slightly
represented. Hence the Quitenos, as the inhabitants of
the plateau are often called in a collective sense, reflect
in their daily life and social habits the old Quichuan
culture almost more than that grafted upon it by the
Spaniards. Indeed, some of their customs are quite
barbarous, and are a source of constant amazement to
strangers passing through the country. It is curious to
read of the capital of a " civilised " state being dependent
for its supply of water on the public fountains, and their
basins contaminated by all sorts of abominations, while
the over- fastidious have twopenny worth brought every
.morning several miles in large pots. The houses of Quito
are also destitute of hearths and chimneys, and the same
primitive conditions characterise all religious and com-
ECUADOJi
175
inerciiil uffairs. Under ati outward show of Christianity
the old pagan notions still persist, and in the altar-pieces
representing St. Michael vanquishing the devil, every-
where a favourite motive, both Archangel and draoion are
worshipped with equal fervour.
In the religious processions scenes are witnessed
WATF.n-nAKRIEUS OF QUITO, FX'UADOR.
which almost recall the ceremonies preceding the
sanguinary rites of the old Aztec teocalli. These pro-
cessions are followed not only by dancers, mimes, and
masqueraders, but also by the so-called chacatascas or
public penitents, who, like the flagellants of the ]\Iiddle
176 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TPAVEL
Ages and the Indian fakirs, lacerate their half- naked
bodies with an endless variety of self-inflicted tortures.
The Jivaros
In the province of Oriente much the same ethical
relations prevail as in most other unreclaimed Amazonian
lands. Here the Indios, or Christian natives, are not
numerous, being chiefly represented by the Qujos or
Canelos, settled about the missions of the Upper Napo
and its headwaters. All the rest — Jivaros of the Pastasa,
Zcqjaros of the Napo and its southern affluents, Piojes of
the Aguarico, Middle N"apo, and Putumayo, Iquitos and
Mazanes of the Tigre, Nanai, and Lower Napo — are still
" Aucas " or " Infieles," rude wild tribes at various stages
of savagery, just as at the time of the discovery.
Some of the Jivaros, who formerly ranged west to the
Paute, were converted and even reduced by the Spaniards,
who founded settlements in their midst. But in 1599
they all rose in a body and destroyed all these settle-
ments in one day. The Jivaros are a brave, freedom-
loving people, who can endure no servitude, but are
advanced enough to till the land and raise crops of maize,
beans, yucas, and plaintains, while the women are expert
weavers. Like the negroes of West Africa, they have a
drum-language, and in every village there is a tunduli or
great drum, which summons to arms, and issues other
signals, rapidly propagated far and wide. They also preserve
the scalp of the enemy, removing it in one piece from
the neck upwards, and drying it with hot stones in such
a way that the skin shrinks to about the size of a Jaffa
orange, while retaining the features of the victim. They
are very proud of these ghastly trophies, specimens of
which may be seen in several European museums.
ECUADOK 177
The Zaparos
In the ISTapo basin the dominant people are the
Zaparos, who occupy a territory about the size of Wales
between the Napo and the Pastasa. They are very
numerous, or, at least, are broken into numerous sub-
groups, of which as many as thirteen are mentioned by
C. D. Taylor. Of these some, especially the Ahuishiris,
are fierce, irreclaimable savages, while others, perhaps the
majority, have the reputation of being gentle, hospitable,
and well disposed towards Europeans, although living in
a state of constant feud among themselves. Like the
Guarani, to whom they may possibly be remotely allied,
they have a Mongolic expression, with small slant eyes,
thick flat nose, thick lips, and round, beardless face.
Amongst the Zaparos an echo would appear to survive
of the Shamanistic religion so widely diffused over North
America and Siberia. Like the shaman of the Tunguses,
their shimanu is a true mediator between the good and
•evil spirits, with whom they hold commune during
delirious trances brought on by drinking the ayaliucisca
or divining liquor. They also perform conjuring tricks,
and, like the Australian medicine men, extract the darts
which some enemy is supposed to have stuck into the
body of people suffering from any pain or ailment. But
Mr. Simson does not think they are imposters, but rather,
by constant repetition, come to acquire a kind of super-
stitious belief in their own deceptive practices.
The Piojes
On the Kapo and its Aguarico affluent also dwell the
Piojes, who are akin to the Macaguajes of the Putumayo.
Although classed as Aucas, those who come in contact
VOL. I N
178 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
with traders disclaim the title, and call themselves
Christians, meaning, jjerhaps, civilised or settled, and not
merely wild tribes like their Zaparo neighbours. From
these they differ greatly in dress, arms, and many
customs, and are certainly far more civilised, as they not
only cultivate the soil, growing large crops of cassava and
plaintains, but also own a large breed of dogs well trained
for the hunt. From the poisonous species of mandioca
they prepare the so-called cassava, a dry cake somewhat
like the unleavened bread of the Jews, which has the
great advantage of keeping well for a long time in their
moist climate. These peaceful, industrious natives are
exposed to the attacks of the savage Ahuishiris, and also
suffer occasionally at the hands of lawless white traders,
although well disposed towards all strangers.
History — Colonial Rule
After the conquest of the country by the Incas (see
above) Quitu was not reduced to a mere dependency or
outlying province of the Peruvian empire, but the old
kingdom was reconstituted as a separate state, inde-
pendent of, and at times even hostile to the central
government. Indeed, one of the immediate causes of the
downfall of the Incas was the rivalry of the two states,
which had been engaged in open warfare just before the
Conquistadores arrived on the scene, and almost at a
single stroke destroyed both branches of the old dynasty
of the Incas.
On the death of the last of the Shyri rulers, Huayna-
Capac is said to have arrested further resistance by marry-
ing that monarch's daughter. Pacha, and taking up his
residence in Quitu. Moreover, he destroyed the unity of
the empire by leaving Cuzco (Peru) to the legitimate heir,
ECUADOR 179
Huascar, and Quitu (Ecuador) to Pacha's son, Atahualpa
The two half-brothers soon fell out, and Atahualpa had
just defeated and captured Huascar when he was him-
self treacherously seized and put to death by Pizarro
(1532).
The transition from native to Spanish rule was
marked by the foundation of the present city of Quito by
Belalcazar in 1534. But the first governor of the
province was Gonzalo Pizarro, appointed in 1540 by his
brother Francisco shortly before his assassination. After
Gonzalo's execution in 1550 the province of Quito
became a Presidency under the viceroys of Peru, and,
except for a short interval when it was transferred to
Bogota (1710-22), remained an administrative de-
pendency of Peru during the Colonial period. Under
the oppressive Spanish rule, the chief event was the
terrible earthquake of 1797, which rent the continent
from Cuzco and Panama, and in a few seconds destroyed
40,000 persons in Quito alone.
The Republic
The people were unprepared for self-government when
Ecuador was constituted an independent state. The new
republic was, however, governed well during the first
fifteen years of its existence, under the able administra-
tions of General Elores and of the accomplished scholar
and statesman, Vicente Eocapuarta. There were troubles
during some of the succeeding years, until General Elores
returned in 1860. Under Garcia Moreno the priests
obtained undue influence for fifteen years. For the last
ten years Antonio Elores, son of the General, and Lewis
Cordero have served their regular terms, and Don Eloy
Alfaro has been President since 1896,
ISO COMPENDIUxM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
Topography
In Ecuador the urban groups are all concentrated on
the plateau, and along the main route leading from the
coast to the interior. Despite earthquakes and political
disorders Quito, the capital of the State, has a population
estimated at about 80,000, but according to Whymper
not more than 35,000, mostly Mestizos, with a few
whites, and in the suburbs a considerable number of pure
Indians. It stands at an altitude of 9343 feet, near the
source of the Esmeraldas, under the shadow of Pichincha.
It is laid out in the form of a perfect square, with a few
straggling environs, and may feel prouder of its fine
Eenaissance churches than of its ill -paved streets. A
great part of the city is covered with churches and
convents, which contrast strangely with the mean and
dilapidated appearance of most of the houses. One of
the chief local industries is the execution of oil-paintings,
mostly religious subjects, which are largely exported to the
surrounding countries. Another speciality are the dried
skins of birds, especially those of humming-birds, brought
in from all parts, but chiefly by the Indians from the
river Napo. The Indians also bring to Quito the well-
known vegetable -ivory nuts, which are carved by the
local artists into rude little figures, painted in Ijright
colours, and sold to the country people.
From Quito the main route leads between tlie Avenue
of Volcanoes southwards to all the large towns on the
plateau — Latacunga and Amhato, not far from Chimborazo,
each with about 10,000 inhabitants; Riohamha, near the
source of the Pastasa, west of Altar ; Alausi, south-west
of Sangai ; Citenca, far to the south in the upper Paute
basin ; and Loja in the same basin, but much nearer the
Peruvian frontier. Cuenca may have a population of
ECUADOK
181
25,000 and Eiobamba of 1L>,000, while that of all the
others falls probably below 10,000. They stand at
elevations ranging from about 8500 to a little over 9000
feet, and with their low cheerless houses, dusty or else
muddy streets, and unlovable surroundings, present the
same general aspect of hopeless dreariness.
But noble buildings, spacious thoroughfares, and other
civic attractions can scarcely be looked for in an im-
GUAYAQUIL.
poverished land, where whole cities may at any moment
be buried beneath a treacherous soil, or overwhelmed by
some sudden display of volcanic energy. Such was the
fate of Cacha near Eiobamba, which, with its 5000
inhabitants, was swallowed up in 1640 in a still yawning
chasm. Eiobamba itself was destroyed in 1797, and
has been rebuilt on a new site less exposed to such
disasters.
Perhaps the largest and almost the most important
place in the whole country is the seaport of Guayaquil,
182 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
at the head of the Guayas estuary, where is centred
nearly all the foreign trade of Ecuador. It was founded
by Belalcazar in 1535 near the old Indian city of Culenta,
with which it was connected across swamps and back-
waters by a causeway nearly half a mile long. Duran,
opposite Guayaquil, which has a reputed population of
50,000, is the seaward terminus of the only railway in
the country. It was begun many years ago to connect
the plateau with the sea-coast, but only about 60 miles
have yet been completed, that is the section running from
Cliitiibo to Duran. Guayaquil is accessible at low water
only to small vessels, and those of heavy draught have to
ride at anchor lower down the estuary. Harbour works
are much needed to improve the approaches ; but these,
like the railways and the highways, for the most part
mere bridle-paths, still await the advent of a firm and
enlightened administration to introduce the practical
measures required to open up the resources of the country.
Eesources — Land Tenure
These resources, if inferior to those of Peru and
Colombia, are by no means despicable. The emeralds,
which gave their name to the Esmeraldas river, are no
longer found. But the profitable gold-washings in this
wonderfully fertile low-lying Esmeraldas valley are proof
enough of the presence of rich auriferous quartz-reefs on
the uplands. At present the only mine actually open is
that of Zaruma, although the washings yield gold-dust in
the proportion of about two shillings of every cubic metre
dealt with.
Agriculture is in a rudimentary state ; there are no
ploughs anywhere to be seen, and in some districts the
corn is still thrashed by the primitive process of " sabot-
ECUADOR 183
dancing." Hence it is not surprising that a land, which
might yield enough for the wants of twenty times the
present population, is still largely dependent on California
and Chili for its supply of wheat and flour.
This backward state of the agricultural interests is no
doubt partly due to the constant political ferment which
drives off capital, but also in great measure to the feudal
system of land tenure. The whole country belongs to a
few absentee owners, whose estates are often of boundless
extent. Thus one great lord owns the whole of Cayambe,
with Sara-Urcu and all the intervening plains and valleys.
Another is master of Antisana with all its farmsteads,
pastures, and live-stock, and he is himself ignorant of the
extent of his domain, which stretches for an unknown
distance eastwards in the direction of the Amazon.
Administration
The republic is constituted much in the same way
as that of Colombia, with a centralised authority, and
provinces administered by governors, who are appointed
by and are directly responsible to the State. By the Con-
stitution of 1884, modified in 1887, the President and
the Vice-President are Ijoth elected by the people for
four years, and perform their functions through a Cabinet
of five ministers, who, as well as the President, may be
impeached by Congress. This legislative assembly con-
sists of a Senate with two members for each province
chosen for four years, and a Chamber of Deputies chosen
for two years in the proportion of one for every 30,000
inhabitants. The franchise is limited to adults who can
read and write, and are Eoman Catholics.
Not only is the Catholic the State religion, but 210
other cult is tolerated. Primary instruction is both free
184 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
and obligatory, and for the higher education there are
three Universities, those of Quito, Cuenca, and Guayaquil,
besides nine High and thirty-five Secondary Schools. In
1899 the total attendance was about 70,000, the in-
struction imparted being strictly " orthodox."
The Galapagos Islands
This interesting group of islands belongs politically to
Ecuador, but being almost destitute of inhabitants, is
administered as a " territory." It lies due west of Quito,
being crossed towards the north by the equator, and
consists of nine or ten islands of varying size, but all of
volcanic origin. The surface is generally bare and arid,
although a few cone-shaped hills, ranging from 1600 to
about 3600 feet, are covered with grass, thanks to the
mists in which they are generally wrapped. The chief
members of the Archipelago are Albemarle, the largest
(1710 square miles), Chatham, Narborough, Indefatigable,
James, Hood, and Charles I. or Floreana, with a total
area of 3170 square miles, and a population of less than
300, mostly concentrated in Chatham. When discovered
by Tomas de Berlanga in 1535 the group was found to
be uninhabited, but was afterwards resorted to by buc-
caneers, whalers, and even a few settlers from Ecuador.
The cotton, tobacco, fig, orange, plum, and other plants
introduced by these colonists now run wild, as do also
the cattle, horses, asses, pigs, cats, dogs, goats, and
poultry.
But for zoologists the chief interest attaches to the
indigenous animals — birds and reptiles — which when
examined by Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle
were found to be distinct species unknown elsewhere.
Of the twenty-five kinds of land birds described by the
To face page 184.
Sianfordls Geod^ ^stab'^ Icjndm.
iiford. 12. 13 & 14, LoELg Acre. WC.
EC UADOR
To far, pag» 13-t
.%■'"
/" ^ C I F I I
O C £" -4 iV ^ «. J^
- * ™^P' f
Scale, 1:6.336,000. 100En<fliBhSltttiit*MilefiU.l Incl
I r S 1
ifordis (kou'- E^taB^ LanAi
ECUADOK 185
great naturalist (the number has since been increased by
further research) all but one proved to be peculiar to the
group. Many of these were finches with remarkably
broad beaks. Peculiar also were a remarkable species of
turtle, a gigantic tortoise, two strange kinds of lizards,
and some snakes. The nearest allied forms occur, as
might be expected, in South America, from which the
nearest islands are distant only 140 miles.
A remarkable circumstance . connected with this
isolated fauna is the restricted area of some of the
forms, the finches, for instance, of one island being re-
presented by allied but quite distinct species on another.
In seeking for an explanation of these phenomena, the
important fact was noticed that the islands containing
such distinct species were separated from each other by
deep channels with strong currents. The islands, being
volcanic and rising abruptly from the abyss, must have
been separately upheaved by submarine forces, and could
never have since been closely connected either with their
neighbours or with the adjacent Continent. They were
peopled by their present species at a period sufficiently
remote to allow time for much variation in the characters
of the different forms. This isolated development in
separate areas was one of those striking facts, which
ultimately led to the Darwinian doctrine of the origin of
species, and generally to the establishment of modern
evolutionary teachings. It became obvious to the
meanest understanding that such isolated forms, in small
areas of relatively late igneous origin, could not have
been specially created, but were slowly modified by
natural selection and gradual adaptation to their new
environment.
CHAPTEK VII
PERU
Extent, Area, Population— Physical Features : Plateaux and Cordilleras
—The Negra and Blanca Kanges— The Cerro de Pasco and Carabaya
Range— The Volcanic Zone: Misti— Ornate— Tutupaca— Underground
Agencies — Thermal Waters — Varied Scenery — Local Terminology-
Hydrography — The Amazon System — The Maranon and
Putumayo— The Ucayali System— The Huallaga and Javari— Pacific
Drainage — Lacustrine Basins — Lake Titicaca — Climate — Flora-
Fauna— Inhabitants— The Cultured Peoples— The Yuncas — The
Aymaras— The Quichuas— Empire of the Incas— The Uncultured
Peoples- The Antis — Tlie Chunchos— Topography— Railway Enter-
prise — Natural Resources : Vegetable Products ; Guano ; Minerals —
Causes and Results of the Chilian War— The Peruvian Corijoration—
Administration.
Extent, Area, Population
In colonial times the Vice-royalty of Peru, so named
from an obscure coast-stream the very existence of which
has since been questioned, comprised by far the larger
part of Spanish South America. But the long wars of
independence, in which several of its dependencies
played their own part, were followed by a more or less
voluntary dismemberment of this vast domain, leaving
to the central or Peruvian section a territory of about
half a million square miles. Since then this area has
been further reduced by readjustments of frontiers, and
especially by the permanent cession of some 20,000
PERU
187
square miles to Chile after the disastrous war of 1879-81.
Besides this loss of the provice of Tarapaca, the two
provinces of Tacna and Arica were also ceded for a
period of twelve years, on the understanding that their
future position should then be decided by a vote of the
inhabitants themselves. For various reasons the decision
was deferred till the year 1898, when a convention
for the purpose of carrying out the plebiscite was
signed at Santiago. Pending the settlement of the
boundary questions with Colombia, Ecuador, and Brazil,
involving perhaps over 200,000 square miles of un-
developed forest tracts, the present area of the republic
within its recognised limits exceeds 460,000 square
miles, with a coast-line of about 1200 miles running from
the Arica bend in a north-westerly direction to the
Guayaquil estuary. Landwards its territory is conter-
minous on the north with Ecuador and Colombia, on the
north-east with Brazil, on the east and south with
Bolivia and Chile, the Bolivian frontier being much more
extensive than any of the others. Owing to the ex-
cessive infant mortality, and the great ravages of small-
pox amongst the aborigines, the population appears to
have remained almost stationary since the last census of
1876, when it was returned at 2,621,000 (besides some
350,000 uncivilised Indians), distributed amongst the
nineteen departments as under : —
Departments.
Piura
Cajamarca
Amazonas
Loreto .
Libertad
Ancachs
Lima 1
Callao J
Huaneavelica
Area in sq. miles.
Population
. 13,931
135,502
. 14,188
213,391
. 14,129
34,245
. 3-2,727
61,125
15,649
147,541
17,405
284,091
14,760
f 226,922
l 34,492
. 10,815
104,155
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Departments.
Area in sq. miles
Population
Huanuco "\
Junin J
33,822
/ 78,856
I 209,871
lea
6,295
60,111
Ayacucho
24,213
142,205
Cuzco
95,547
238,445
Puno
39,743
256,594
Arequipa
27,744
160,282
Moquegua
22,516
28,786
Apurimac
62,325
119,244
Lambayeque .
. 17,939
85,984
463,747
2,621,844
Wild Tribes . '
350,000
Tot
al est
. pop. 1898
2,971,844
Of the present inhabitants of Peru more than half,
or about 57 per cent, are believed to be full-blood
Indians, for the most part direct descendants of the
ancient people, who still speak the Quichua language,
and preserve almost unimpaired the consciousness of
their former greatness as an imperial race. About 23
per cent are Mestizos — partly Cholos, partly Zambos,
and the remaining 20 per cent mostly full -blood
Spaniards, with nearly 20,000 Europeans and Americans,
and perhaps 25,000 Asiatic coolies, mainly from the
southern provinces of China.
Physical Features : Plateaux and Cordilleras
That section of the Cordilleras which lies within the
political frontiers of Peru presents some distinctive
characters, the most striking of which are its general
trend and its horizontal development. About the lati-
tude of Arica towards the Chilian frontier the whole
system bends round somewhat abruptly from the normal
south-north to a north-wester! y direction, which is
maintained bv the main ranges for a distance of 1200
PEKU 189
miles to the Loja knot within the Ecuadorean frontier.
At the same time the uplands broaden out in the
direction from west to east far beyond the Peruvian
frontier, thus embracing a large part of the neighbouring
Bolivian republic, and developing a vast tableland, sur-
passed in extent and altitude only by the great Tibetan
plateaux. This tableland, which stands at a mean
elevation of from 11,000 to 12,000 feet, is enclosed east
and west by the two main branches of the Andean system.
In Peru these ramparts are respectively known as
the Andes and the Western Goi^dillera, the former term
being used in a pre-eminent and exclusive sense, while
Cordillera is also applied to the secondary ridges running
either parallel or transversely to the main ranges. In
general their elevation is less than that of the Chilian and
Ecuadorean sections, and in the south the western branch,
although presenting towards the sea the appearance of
an unbroken rocky barrier of great height, rises in reality
but little above the level of the plateau, of which in fact
it forms the seaward escarpment.
The Negra and Blanca Ranges
But farther north are developed the two lofty
and parallel crests of the Cordillera Negra and the
Cordillera Nevada, where the Peruvian system attains
its greatest elevation. Here the Cordillera Negra,
that is, the outer range between the sea and the
Pdo Huaraz, or upper valley of the Eio Santa coast-
stream, rises above 16,000 feet, while its low^est
passes stand at an altitude of 13,800 feet. But no
snow lodges on its upper crests, which, in contrast to
the inner range, remain bare and bleak, whence its
epithet of " Negra."
190 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Still loftier is the parallel inner range of the
Cordillera Nevada or Blanca, i.e., " white," which runs at
an altitude of over 18,000 feet between the Eio Huaraz
and the upper Maranon valley, and thus forms the true
water-parting between the Pacific and the Atlantic
slopes. Here stand all the highest summits of the
Peruvian highlands — the Gerro de Huandoy, the Cerro
de Hucdean, and the twin -peaked Cerro de Huascan,
all certainly over 20,000 feet, while, according to the
measurements of Hindle, Huascan towers to a height of
more than 22,000 feet
The Cerro de Pasco and Carabaya Eange
Towards the sources of the Maranon all the main
ranges, with their connecting cross-ridges, converge in the
knot of the Cerro de Pasco, which takes its name from
the neighbouring upland town of Pasco. In this rugged
alpine region, where the plateau formation almost dis-
appears amid a chaos of irregular crests and chains, the
Huaylillas peak rises considerably above 16,000 feet.
Here the Carabaya section of the eastern rampart facing
the Amazonian slopes has several snowy summits falling
little below 16,000 feet, while Chololo within the
Bolivian frontier has an estimated altitude of over
17,600 feet. This snowy Carabaya range, where the
Inambari and other headwaters of the Madre-de-Dies
have their source, throws out its eastern spurs as far as
67° W. long., which gives an extreme breadth of about
850 miles for the Peruvian uplands at their widest part
between Cuzco and 10° S. lat.
Farther north the plateau formation continually
decreases in breadth in the direction of Ecuador, while
the Cordilleras in the northern provinces fall proportion-
PEKU 191
ally in height and acquire a more irregular character.
Here the system breaks into a number of separate ridges
with peaks often not more than 10,000 feet high, but
still generally disposed in the same north-westerly
direction as the main ranges.
The Volcanic Zone : Misti — Ornate — Tutupaca
Passing southwards from Ecuador, the traveller is at
once struck by a marked change in the aspect of the
scenery, due to a total absence of volcanoes. No burn-
ing mountains occur anywhere except in the southern
section of the Western Cordillera, where they are mainly
confined to the districts of Arequipa and Moquegua.
Here are disposed roughly, in a line with the main crest,
a considerable number of extinct and quiescent cones,
some of which may approach and even exceed 20,000
feet in altitude. But, pending accurate measurements,
the estimates of observers vary greatly, as in the case of
Misti, most conspicuous and best known member of the
group, for which the estimates range from 17,900 to
20,260 feet. North of this central cone, which over-
shadows Arequipa, the loftiest summits appear to be
Chachani (19,820 ?), Acliataylum (18,700 ?), Sara-Sara
(20,000 ?), Coro-Puna, while to the south rise Ubinas,
the elongated and restless Ornate {Huayna- Patina), and
near the Chilian frontier Tutupaca or Candarave
(18,960?).
Both Omate and Tutupaca have been the scene of
terrific explosions, the latter in 1779, the former in
1600, when Arequipa, over 42 miles away, was nearly
destroyed by an earthquake, and then wrapped in a
shroud of black smoke for ten days. Prodigious quanti-
ties of scoriaj and aslies were ejected, the volcanic dust
192 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
was wafted 930 miles seawards, and the roar of the
groaning mountain was distinctly heard in Lima, 530
miles away to the north. One of the highest observa-
tories in the world has been erected by the American
astronomer, Mr. Pickering, on the Carmen Alto, a span
of Mount Misti about midway between the volcanoes of
Chachani in the north-west and TTbinas in the south-east.
Underground Agencies — Thermal Waters
Underground disturbances are, if less frequent,
certainly more violent in Peru than in Japan itself.
I^or are they restricted to any particular area, and are
felt quite as much in the igneous districts, despite their
volcanic " safety-valves," as in other parts of the " sea-
board and of the plateau. At Lima, away to the north,
the seismograph records on an average as many as eight
yearly shocks, one of which levelled its port of Callao in
1746. Arica and Arequipa were nearly destroyed in
1868, and the whole of this seaboard was again ravaged
in 1877.
The presence of dormant subterranean forces is attested
by numerous thermal springs occurring in every part of
the country, and generally abounding in mineral sub-
stances. Such are the so-called Bano del Inca, the
" Inca's Baths " ; the Agua Caliente, " Hot Waters " ;
Brioso, Chincay, Chancos, Fararcar, Patina, and many
others.
Varied Scenery — Local Terminology
Pew regions of the globe present a greater diversity
of sublime or picturesque scenery than the Peruvian
section of the Andean uplands, with their western and
PERU 193
eastern fringes of dry, arid seaboard, and moist
Amazonian woodlands. Here some confusion is caused
by the peculiar use of certain terms, by which the
different superimposed zones are locally distinguished.
Thus the montana comprises, not the Alpine heights, but
the lowest zone of wooded Amazonian slopes up to about
5000 feet. So also sierra is applied, not so much to
any particular jagged crest, as in other parts of the
Spanish -speaking world, as to the temperate zone,
generally between 5000 and 11,000 feet. Higher up
follows the 'pivna, corresponding to the Venezuelan and
Colombian paramo — a narrow zone of cold, bleak terraces
and passes from 11,000 to 14,000 or 15,000 feet, above
which are the snowy crests and slopes of the Alpine
region, designated as the cordillera, also in a special sense.
This singular diversity in the character of the land-
scape is referred to in vivid language by Mr. E. G.
Squier, who remarks that nowhere else does nature
assume grander, more imposing or varied aspects than in
Peru. " Deserts as bare and repulsive as those of the
Sahara alternate with valleys as luxuriant as those of
Italy. Lofty mountains, crowned with eternal snow, lift
high their rugged sides over broad bleak punas or table-
lands, themselves more elevated than the summits of the
Alleghanis. Elvers taking their rise among melting
snow precipitate themselves through deep and rocky
gorges into the Pacific, or meander, with gentle current,
amongst the majestic Andes to swell the flood of the
Amazon. There are lakes ranking in size with those
that feed the St. Lawrence, whose surfaces lie almost
level with the summit of Mont Blanc." ^
No greater contrast can well be conceived than the
two neighbouring regions of the Amazonian slope and
^ Peru: Incidents of Travel, etc., 1877.
VOL. I
194 COMPENDIUM or GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the Andean uplands — a contrast apparent as much in
the conformation of the land as in its climate and
natural products. The montaiia, as above defined, pre-
sents itself as a boundless, relatively low -lying, hot
alluvial region, traversed in every direction by great
rivers teeming with multitudes of fishes in endless
variety of size and form. It is a land covered with
virgin forest, laden with luxuriant foliage and brilliant
blossom, rich in medicinal and other useful plants, birds
and wild animals, but thinly peopled with a few hordes
of savage Indians, struggling for existence against a too
exuberant nature. Here are seen the luxuriant growths
of the tropical world — tree-ferns, the graceful bamboo
and lovely palms, such as the PasMnha, shooting straight
up from its curious stilt -like aerial roots. Here prowls
the hungry jaguar, and all the land teems with
humming-birds, bright butterflies, and deadly snakes.
Here also thrive the sugar-cane, the coffee, cacao and
coca plants, the manioc root, and the valuable species of
the yellow chinchona bark known as C. calisaya, which
was obtained from this region by Sir Clements Markham
in 1860.
The mountainous parts of Peru, on the contrary,
though of less extent, present far more varied features,
and everywhere reveal the traces of a thousand historical
memories. Its Pacific seaboard, where in some places
are stored up for future use inexhaustible supplies of
petroleum, forms a long arid waste, at certain intervals
intersected by narrow green river-valleys. These wind-
ing strips of verdure are fertilised in the rainless zone by
the short coast-streams resulting from the melting of
the snows on the gigantic Cordilleras, which at some
points tower to a majestic height within a few miles of
the rock-bound shores of the ocean.
PERU 195
Farther inland the elevated plateau, ranging from
11,000 to 14,000 feet above the sea, is flanked on one
side by the unbroken line of the Western Cordillera, and
on the other by the less connected eastern chain of the
Andes. Here are situated the cold, barren, cheerless
despoUados and the scarcely less extensive punas, whose
scanty herbaceous vegetation yields but a meagre fare to
the llama and alpaca. Here are also situated those hill-
encircled holsones, or closed valleys, with the climate
and products of the temperate zones, where formerly
flourished the mysterious civilisation of the Incas.
Here are seen those deep, narrow, mountain gorges,
where the thousand head-streams of the Amazon collect
their waters before forcing their way over roaring
cataracts and through the dark clefts of the Andes
down to the plains of Brazil.
Hydrography — The Amazon System
Partly on geographical, partly on political grounds,
the mighty Amazonian fluvial system is usually and
conveniently divided into three great sections — the
Maranon or upper course, from its farthest sources in
the Peruvian highlands, to Tabatinga on the Brazilian
frontier ; the Solimoens or middle course, from this
point to the Eio Negro confluence ; and the Amazon
proper, or lower course, from the Eio Negro to the
Atlantic.
The two latter sections of the main stream, too-ether
with most of their ramifying branches, are comprised
within the confines of Brazil, while the upper section,
together with the upper valleys of some of the Solimoens
affluents, belong entirely to Peru. Here rise and flow
for hundreds of miles the Maraiion, the Huallaga, and
196 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the Ucayali, that is, the three farthest head-streams of
the whole system, which with the Paute, Pastasa, Tigre,
and Napo from Ecuador converge above Tabatinga to
form the Solimoens. The three Peruvian valleys are all
disposed mainly parallel to each other in the direction
from south to north, the Ucayali in the east, that is,
along the inland slope of the Andes chain ; the Huallaga
in the middle, that is, mainly through the heart of the
plateau ; and the Maranon in the west, that is, nearest
to the Pacific along the inner foot of the Western
Cordillera.
It is apparently owing to this westernmost posi-
tion, farthest from the Atlantic, that the Maranon is
commonly regarded as the true upper course of the
Amazon. But were the question to be decided by length
and volume, this honour should certainly be transferred
to the Ucayali, which at the conHuence is the larger of
the two, and has also a much longer course, as was
already suspected by La Condamine in the eighteenth
century. The same view has since been taken by Squier
and others.
In any case the Ucayali was already known from
Arana's expedition of 1866 to be navigable by steamers
for hundreds of miles above the Maranon confluence.
For 600 miles to the mouth of the Pachitea, a tributary
from the west, it was found to have an average depth of
from 40 to 70 feet, with a gentle current of only two to
three miles an hour. The Pachitea itself was ascended
for a further distance of 204 miles to the junction of
the Falcazu, on the banks of which is situated the
village of Mayro, the nearest point to Lima, at which
this vast fluvial system begins to be navigable. The
two smaller steamers of the expedition had no difficulty
in reaching the port of Mayro, thus proving that by
PERU 197
this route the Amazon and its tributaries are navigable
for 3623 miles to within 325 miles of the Peruvian
capital.
It should be mentioned that a treaty was concluded
in 1851 with Brazil, securing the free navigation of the
Amazon by Peruvian vessels between the Atlantic and
these interior districts. Since 1862 the great water-
ways within Peruvian territory have, thanks to this
arrangement, been regularly traversed by steamers in
conjunction with the lines of Brazilian vessels plying
between the Atlantic port of Para and Tabatinga on the
Peruvian frontier.
The Maranon and Putumayo
The Maranon, which issues from the little Lake
Lauricocha, north of the Cerro de Pasco, at an altitude
of 14,270 feet above sea-level, flows for a long distance
in the normal north-westerly direction in a deep and
somewhat narrow bed, forcing its way through the Andes
proper in a series of wild rocky gorges and rapids, here
called pongos. At the Pongo de Manserichc, last and
most famous of these narrows, it has already reached
the low level of about 550 feet above the sea, so that
from this point to the estuary the fall is scarcely per-
ceptible. In the latitude of about 5° S. it curves round
from the north-west to the east, and retains this direction
for the rest of its course to the Atlantic.
In the debatable region between Peru and Ecuador
the Maraiion is joined on its right bank by the Huallaga
and the Ucayali, and at S. Antonio on the left below
Tabatinga by the Putumayo, which, although mainly a
Colombian river, enters Brazil in its lower course, and
higher up flows for some distance through territory con-
198 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
tested by Colombia and Peru. After its junction with
the S. Miguel and other head-streams about the frontiers
of Colombia and Ecuador, and not far from the Cerro de
Loja, the Putuniayo takes a south-easterly course through
the wooded Amazonian plains, where it is navigable by
small steamers for about 900 miles from Montepa to the
Solimoens. But the navigation is almost everywhere
much obstructed by tortuous windings, shoals, and shifting
sandbanks.
The Ucayali System
Unlike the Putumayo and the Maranon, the Ucayali is
formed by the junction, not of two or more separate head-
streams, but of two great fluvial systems, whose intricacies,
increased by an uncertain nomenclature, have not yet
been entirely unravelled. One of its chief sources lies
far to the south in the lakelet de la Eaya, on the northern
slope of the Cerro de Vilcanota, which forms the divide
between the Amazon and the closed basin of Lake Titicaca.
Here rises the Vilcamayo, which lower down becomes
the already mentioned Urubamba, and is joined on its
right bank by the Paucartambo. At this confluence the
main stream thus formed is variously known as the
Quillabamha, Uruhamba, and Vilcamayo, some confusion
being caused by this twofold use of the two last mentioned
terms, which, with the alternative Quillabamba, are in-
differently applied to the section of the south-eastern
system between the mouth of the Paucartambo and the
confluence of the south-western branch, as the second
great system may be called.
This is both the more intricate and apparently the
longer of the two, its most southern source being, accord-
ing- to some authorities, in the Cordillera de Chila, within
100 miles of the Pacific Ocean, while its westernmost
PERU 199
supplies come from the Junin basin beyond Lake Ghin-
chaycoclia, south of the Cerro de Pasco. From the south
comes the Catonga or A^Jurimac, already swollen in its
upper reaches by numerous tributaries, such as the
Tmribolamha, the Pacliachaca, Pampas, and Pulperia, all
flowing, like the Maranon, in deep, narrow, rocky beds.
The Pachachaca is spanned by a fine stone bridge dating
from Spanish times, while the Pampas and Apurimac
are crossed by the so-called mimhres, — aerial suspension-
bridges waving to and fro with every breath of wind.
From Lake Chinchaycocha issues the Pio Jaiija or
MantarOy which winds in a singularly tortuous channel,
here and there doubling upon itself in its struggles to
escape from the entanglements of the sierras to its
junction witli the Apurimac. Between the lake and this
point there is a total fall over endless gorges and rapids
of no less than 12,000 feet (13,420 to 1420). At the
confluence the united stream takes the name of Ene,
which after its union with the Perene becomes the
I'am'bo as far as its confluence with the south-eastern
system, where the united waters, here not more than
860 feet above sea-level, form the Ucayali properly so
called.
In its course of several hundred miles through the
montaha to the Maranon below the mouth of the Hual-
laga, the Ucayali has a total incline of not more than
540 feet (860 to 320). Hence in its lower course it
flows with an extremely sluggish current between low
winding banks, developing, like the Amazon itself, in-
numerable side-channels, backwaters, and spacious lagoons,
alternately flooded or left dry with the periodical in-
undations and subsidences. In its low^er reaches the
Ucayali is joined by only one important afiiuent, the
already described Pachitea.
200 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
The Huallaga and Javari
Although several hundred miles long, the Huallaga
is almost an insignificant stream compared with the
Maranon and the Ucayali, between which it flows in a
nearly parallel course to its junction with the former
below the mouth of the Pastasa. It is also of far less
economic importance, being so obstructed by pongos that,
according to Eaimondi, it cannot be safely navigated by
steamers beyond Laguna, about 2 8 miles above its mouth.
Light craft ascend at high water as far as Tingo Maria,
330 miles higher up.
Still less important is the Javari, which joins the
Amazon below Tabatinga, and for most of its course forma
the political boundary towards Brazil.
Pacific Drainage
There is no room for the development of large rivers
on the relatively narrow strip of seaboard, which is,
moreover, comprised for the most part within the rainless
zone. During the greater part of the year the fluvial
beds are mere quehradas, that is, waterless ravines, like
the wadys of Arabia, with a little moisture below the
surface and subject to periodical freshets. Of these
intermittent coast-streams the most copious appears to
be the Huaraz, which traverses the long, narrow, and
fertile valley known as the Callejon dc Huaraz between
the Cordilleras Negra and Nevada. Issuing from the
little Lake Conococha (12,940 feet), the Huaraz rushes
down a precipitous incline to its junction with the Chu-
quicara coming from the opposite direction. Below the
confluence the united stream turns abruptly to the left,
forcing a passage through the Cordillera Negra to the
PERU 201
coast zone, where it takes the name of Santa, from the
town near which it enters the Pacific after a rapid course
of about 240 miles. South of the Santa follow the
Rimac, which gives its name to Lima} capital of Peru,
the GJmnchanga, lea, Grande, Yauca, Ocona, Tamho, Ylo,
and others, not one of which is perennial or navigable at
any time.
Lacustrine Basins — Lake Titicaca
The term coclia, that is, "lake," which forms an
element in so many geographical names, attests the
presence on the plateau and its slopes of numerous lacus-
trine basins, such as Ghinchaycocha in the Junin district,
one of the sources of the Ucayali ; Parinacocha, Ghina-
cocha, Cahallococha, Suachacocha, Huascacocha, Orcococlia,
and others, mostly mere upland tarns of small size. But
on the south-east frontier stretches the vast closed basin
of Titicaca, which, however, belongs almost more to
Bolivia than to Peru.
Titicaca, which is incomparably the largest body of
fresh water in the southern continent, being surpassed in
the New World only by the great lakes of North
America, forms an irregular oval, disposed in the same
direction from south-east to north-west as all the great
Peruvian ranges, and divided into two very unequal
secondary basins by the two peninsulas of Gopacahana
and Tiguina. It has an extreme length of 130 miles,
with a mean breadth of 44 miles, and a total area of
3300 square miles. Its present altitude, which slightly
varies with the seasons, ranges from about 12,200 to
^ By normal interchange of r and I Rimac became Limac, and by loss
of c Lima. The word in Quichna means the "Speaker," in reference to a
temple which formerly stood on its banks and was famous for its oracular
utterances.
202 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
12,220 feet. But it formerly stood much higher, and
then discharged eastwards to the Amazon basin. At
present it has no seaward outflow, but sends its overflow
through the Desaguadero emissary, 160 miles long, to
the swampy and saline Lake AuUagas, which appears to
be itself a closed basin. At least there is but one per-
ceptible outlet, and that too small to carry off all the
superfluous water, so that the excess must either be dis-
charged by some underground channel or else lost by
evaporation. Owing to its great altitude Titicaca, which
has a depth in places of over 700 feet, presents a some-
what dreary aspect, its treeless shores fringed with a
scant and stunted vegetation, and its shelving margin
overgrown with tall rushes. Formerly its icy waters
were enlivened only by balsas with reed sails, but since
the opening of the railway through Arequipa to the
Pacific coast, Puno maintains a number of steamers on
the lake, besides a flotilla of balsas, which are made of
reeds firmly lashed together, and propelled by reed sails.
Climate
In Peru the three natural regions of the montana,
the plateau, and the seaboard have each its special
climate, while the higher crests penetrate into the frigid
zone. The trade-winds, which in all the equatorial
regions of the New World set steadily from east to west,
sweep up the great valley of the Amazon, checked by no
obstacle until they strike against the eastern slopes of
the Andes. Here the moisture-bearing clouds discharge
most of their contents in the form both of rain and snow,
and in their further progress across the plateau to the
Western Cordilleras the w^arm humid Atlantic currents
assume more and more the character of cold dry winds,
PERU 203
which blow away over the Pacific without contributing a
drop of rain to the western slopes and coast-lands. But
although a regular shower is here tlie rarest of phenomena,
a little moisture in the form of dense fog or vapour helps
to nourish the scanty vegetation during the winter season
from May to December. The garuas, as these vapours
are called, seldom rise higher than about 1300 feet on
the Pacific slopes, where the transition in some places is
quite abrupt from the lower foggy to the higher rainy
zone. On these coast-lands the temperature is moderated
both by the marine breezes and by Humboldt's cold
marine current, which here sets steadily from south t»>
north, and is many degrees cooler than the surrounding
waters. Thanks to these combined influences, the normal
temperature of Lima near 12° S. lat. is only about 68°
Fahr. At Nauta it rises to 77°, and falls with the
increasing altitude to 60° at Cuzco and 40° at Cerro
de Pasco.
Despite the relatively moderate mean temperature
all the low-lying coast-lands are exposed to the ravages of
yellow fever. Here also the Creoles, or whites of pure
Spanish stock, appear to be scarcely yet acclimatised.
There is little if any natural increase, owing to the
excessive mortality of the children, who are subject to
convulsions and to the so-called " seven-days' sickness,"
which attacks new-born infants and is always fatal.
Ague, dy sentry, and liver affections also prevail in the
seaboard, and typhus and typhoid fever in the montaiia,
while the uplands suffer especially from the somewhat
mysterious soroche. This strange disorder, which is due
to the rarefaction of the atmosphere at great elevations,
assumes different forms in different places, but is never
fatal.
204 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TPvAVEL
Flora
Thanks to the immense diversity of its soil and climate,
combined with the varying aspects and altitudes of the
land, the floras of all the zones, from the frigid to the
torrid, are represented in Peru. Here the exuberant
tropical forests of the hot and abundantly watered
montana are succeeded in the more elevated valleys by
the useful plants of the temperate and sub-tropical
regions, and above these follow the herbaceous and
scrubby growths of the elevated steppe and alpine slopes.
In some districts we pass from sugar, cacao, or coffee
plantations through banana groves to waving fields of
maize, wheat, or barley, to orchards with all the fruits of
the temperate zone, and to open, grassy plains roamed
by horned cattle and flocks of the native alpaca and
llama. Above the range of the cacao (2000 feet) the
coffee shrub (4000), the sugar-cane and nopal (4300), the
potato, European beans and cereals yield excellent
crops, while the vine, introduced at an early date,
thrives well in the volcanic Moquegua district on the
south-west coast.
A highly characteristic member of the Peruvian
vegetable kingdom is the so-called tamai caspi or " rain-
tree," which in the Moyobamba district grows to a height
of about 60 feet. It takes its name from the remark-
able property which it possesses of absorbing the humidity
of the atmosphere in such abundance that the foliage
keeps continually dripping even in the driest weather.
This property is not quite analogous to that of the
" pitcher-plant " of Madagascar, which does not appear to
distil the moisture, V)ut merely to collect the rain as it
falls in the large cavities at the junction of the branches
w"ith the stem.
PERU 205
Fauna
Of the large mammals the most characteristic, as well
as the most useful, is the " American camel," of which
there are four distinct varieties- — the llama, vicuna,
alpaca, and guanaco (huanaco). The llama, which thrives
on the coarse herbage of the puna region, where other
herbivorous animals w^ould perish of hunger, had already
been domesticated at a remote period as a beast of
burden by the Quichuas. Hence it is no longer found
in the wild state. When properly trained and well fed,
the llama carries a load of 60 to 70, or even 75 pounds,
and of its wool is ^voven a stout, serviceable cloth, while
in some districts its droppings (taquia) are the only
available fuel. The llama is not descended from the
guanaco, as was formerly supposed, but is certainly a
distinct and smaller species. Since the introduction of
the European horse, ass, and mule, the llama is less used
as a beast of burden, especially in the mines, and is now-
bred chiefly for its wool, which varies greatly in quality.
In this respect the fleece of the alpaca is much finer and
of more uniform texture, hence is largely imported into
Britain ; even the animal itself has been recently intro-
duced both into England and Ireland.
Although now confined to the Andean uplands, all
these members of the camel family ranged formerly not
only into Brazil and the Argentine pampas, but also into
ISTorth America, and the fossil remains of closely-allied
forms are found in the Tertiary deposits of all these
regions.
A curiosity of the snake world is the calainbo, a
species of boa constrictor, which the natives have succeeded
in domesticating. These large reptiles are trained like
watch -dogs to protect gardens and other enclosures from
206 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
depredators, and they become so attached to the place
where they have been brought up that it is tound
impossible to remove them elsewhere. Many parts of
the neighbouring ocean teem with marine life and
aquatic birds almost to an incredible extent.
Inhabitants — The Cultured Peoples — The Yuncas
There is good reason to believe that in pre-Columbian
times Peru was much more thickly peopled than at
present. The early writers assign a population of from
ten to twelve millions to the empire of the Incas, and
even after the massacres of Almagro, Pizarro, and their
followers, the same region is stated to have still had as
many as eight million inhabitants in 1580, or about
two millions more than at present.
From remote times the great bulk of these popula-
tions had been constituted in settled communities, with
political and social institutions sufficiently advanced to
justify their claim to be regarded as civilised peoples.
Amongst these peoples, who belonged to at least
two distinct races — the Quichua-Aymara of the plateau,
and the Yunca of the Pacific seaboard — three distinct
civilisations had been developed in three cultural
centres : Chimu of the Yuncas, in the present district of
Trujillo on the coast ; Tiahuanaco of the so-called
Aymaras, about the southern shores of Lake Titicaca ;
and Cuzeo of the Quichuas, in the present department
of that name. But some time before the advent of the
whites the first two had been absorbed in the third, so
that the Conquistadores found the whole region from
the equator to Chile, and from the Amazonian slopes to
the Pacific, constituted in a single political state — the
empire of the Incas, that is, of the dominant branch of
PERU 207
the Quichua nation. In later times the term " Inca "
acquired a somewhat restricted meaning, as the name of
a royal family or dynasty. But it is now generally
admitted that the Incas were originally a tribe of
Quichuan stock, who rose to power in the Cuzco district
under their chief Manco-Capac, " first of the Incas,"
early in the eleventh century. It should also be explained
that the other terms — Yunca, Aymara, and Quichua itself
— are aU misnomers, although now too firmly established
to be set aside. In the Quichua language "Yunca"
simply means hot lowlands, while " Chimu," also applied
to the race, was merely the name of their chief city near
Trujillo, so that the true name of this mysterious people
is lost. They have themselves been long assimilated to
their Quichua conquerors, who even planted colonies in
their territory, as was their wont. But their language,
which was called Mochica, and was radically distinct from
Quichua, has fortunately been preserved in a grammar
published in 1644 by F. de la Carrera, a native of the
country.
It is from this source, as well as from the character
of their monuments, that the Yuncas are known to have
been a distinct people, and their culture independently
developed in pre-Inca times. Their empire extended for
over 600 miles along the coast, and a vast space was
occupied by their capital, Chimu, which was captured
and destroyed by the Inca, Yupanqui. Tlie ruins of this
great city extend from the Monte Capana southwards to
the Ptio Moche, covering an area of nearly fifteen miles in
this direction, and from five to six east and west. " In
every direction, for an extent of several leagues, long
lines of massive walls, liuacas, palaces, aqueducts,
reservoirs of water and granaries can be made out.
Everything proves the power and wealth of a people, the
208 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
very name of whom has remained uncertain." ^ Of these
ruins the largest, as well as the most characteristic, are
the truncated pyramids here called huacas, or burying-
places, one of which stands on a base 580 feet square,
and is still 150 feet high. Larger still is the " Temple
of the Sun," at the village of Moche, which is a rect-
angular structure 800 by 470 feet, 200 feet high, and
covering an area of over 7 acres. Monuments of this
type occur nowhere else in South America, and from
their resemblance to the Mexican teocalli some archaeolo-
gists have inferred that the Yunca culture was of Toltec
origin. But the Toltecs are now believed to have been
a Maya people, and the Yunca language bears no kind
of resemblance to Maya, or to any other North American
tongue.
The Aymaras
Before their conquest by Mayta-Capac, the people
now called " Aymaras " appear to have had no collective
name, but were known as Collets, from the tribe on the
north side of Titicaca, which was the first met by the
Incas when they penetrated into this lacustrine basin.
After the conquest the whole region was partly resettled
in the usual way by families drawn from nearly all the
royal tribes of Peru. One of these were the Aymaras,
who founded new homes in the territory of the Lupacas,
a Colla people dwelling on the west side of the lake,
where after the Spanish conquest the Jesuits established
a mission in 1570. These Quichuan settlers w^ere thus
mistaken for a Colla tribe, and the term " Aymara "
transferred from an obscure Inca clan to the whole of
the Colla nation. The error was perpetuated v.'hen
the same name was given to the local dialect in
^ M. de Nadaillac, Pre-Ristoric America, p. 395.
PERU
209
which H grainmer was afterwards published (Eome, 1603),
but wliicli was not " Aymara " (Quichua) but the Lupaca
(CoUa) language, remotely akin to Quichua.
Eeference has already been made (Chap. III.) to the
ethnical and cultural relations of the Ayniaras to their
(j)uichuan conquerors and " younger brothers."' Their
THE GKEAT UOUi'aVAY, TIAHUANACU.
civilisation, as represented by the wonderful monuments
of Titicaca, on the whole the most stupendous ruins in
the Xew "World, is supposed to have been independently
developed on the spot, and in any case had its begin-
nings, like that of the Yuncas, in pre-Inca times. Its
distinctive character is shown not only by the still
standing megaliths, unlike anything else in America, but
also by the huge monolithic doorways, unlike anything
else in the whole world, as well as by many of the
VOL. I P
210 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
details — symbolical carvings, bas-reliefs, colossal statues,
exquisitely polished blocks, and numerous other features,
as described and illustrated in Stiibel and Uhle's
sumptuous work. The astonishment inspired by these
remains, which are scattered over a wide area, is greatly
increased when it is considered that they were erected
on what is now a bleak treeless plateau, 12,000 feet
above sea-level, and that the blocks, some weighing from
100 to 150 tons, had to be transported many miles
either up steep inclines or else across numerous inlets
along the shores of the lake. It would appear from the
many highly polished slabs lying tiat on the ground,
as if ready for the mason, that all formed part of a
general design rivalling in magnitude those of the
largest Egyptian temples, but never completed. The
great doorway, hewn in a single piece, weighing over 12
tons, and decorated with the image of Viracocha, tutelar
deity of the Aymaras, is the supreme triumph of the
native American architecture. " Its significance exceeds
everything hitherto discovered in Peru, and it ranks
amongst the most remarkable remains of pre-Columbian
America." ^
Other structures, which are also of veiy great interest,
being intimately associated with the most hallowed
memories and traditions of the Quichua-Aymara peojDles,
are found in the islands of the neighbouring lake.
Specially remarkable is that of Titicaca, which gives its
name to the whole basin.
The Quichuas— Empire of the Incas
After the subjugation of the Aymaras all their
sacred legends and traditions — older and more venerated
^ Stuhel und Uhle, Text, p. 20.
PERU
211
than those of the Quiclivias themselves — wouhl appear
to have been appropriated or adopted by the Incas.
Thus may be explained the curious fact that Titicaca,
which lay in Aymaraland and was unknown to the early
Incas, became nevertheless associated with the myth of
their divine origin. Here, according to some versions,
the sun reappeared after a total eclipse of several days ;
here were born Manco-Capac and Oello, children of the
Sun, and from Titicaca they issued fortli to found their
empire, not on the shores of the lake, but away to the
north in the heart of Peru.
Certain it is that the earlier and more genuine
tradition points, not to the Cave of Titicaca, but to that
of Paucaritainbo, about the centre of the national domain,
as the true cradle of the Inca race. Attempts were
afterwards made to reconcile those contradictions, and
one explanation was that, after issuing from Titicaca, the
first Inca and his wife descended into the earth and
reappeared through the cave at Paccaritambo. The
dynasty comprised altogether fourteen Incas (four more
or less mythical and ten historical), whose names and
dates, as recorded by Garcilasso de la Vega, himself of
Inca descent, are as under : —
A.D.
A.l).
Manco-Capac
. 1021
Vira-Cocha .
. 1289
Sinchi-Rocca
. 1062
Pacacutec
. 1340
Lloque-Yupanqui
. 1091
Yupanqui
. 1400
Mayta-Capac
. 1126
Tupac- Yupanqui .
. 1439
Capac-Yupanqui .
. 1156
Huayna-Capac
. 1475
Rocca .
. 1197
Huascar
. 1520?
Yahuar-Huaccac .
. 1 249
Atahualpa .
. 1532
Under Huayna-Capac, greutest of the Incas, and the
last who ruled over an undivided empire, the ^vhole
territory comprised four great divisions, which corre-
sponded with the four points of the compass, and were
212 COMPEXDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
connected with the capital, Cuzco, by four main high-
ways radiating north to Quitu, south to Collasuyu
(Aymaraland), east to Antisuyu, and west to the Yunca
country (Pacific Coast-lands). In the central and more
important district dwelt the dominant race, of whom
there were six distinct branches: (1) The Tncas, between
the Eios Apurimac and Paucartampu, with the inter-
vening valley of the Vilcamayo ; (2) The Canas, between
the Vilcanota Pass and the Incas in the same valley ;
(3) The Quichuas, whose name was later extended to the
whole nation, but whose proper territory lay between the
Kios Apurimac and Pampas ; (4) The Chancas, between
Huanta and the Eio Pampas; (5) The Huancas, in the
Jauja valley and thence to the Cerro de Pasco ; (6) The
Rucanas, on both slopes of the Western Cordillera.
Whether the large nation of the Chinchas, whose territory
(Chinchasuyu) lay north of Cuzco, belonged originally to
the same connection, seems doubtful. But in any case
they shared the destinies of all the Quichua groups, who
after long struggles for the supremacy were reduced and
merged in a single political system by the royal Inca
tribe.
Reference is often made to a particular Inca language,
and a few specimens are given. But these all belong to
the common Quichuan tongue, which obtained a wide
range under the sway of the Incas, is still the chief
medium of intercourse throughout the Ecuadorean and
Peruvian uplands, and has also spread to many of the
semi-civilised tribes along the banks of the Amazonian
affluents. It is a highly polysynthetic form of speech,
extremely flexible, rich, and sonorous, at least in the
northern districts, where the gutturals are softened and
harsh combinations avoided.
Although there is no native graphic system, the-
PERU 213
Quichuans possessed a somewhat copious oral literature,
A*
IXCA INDIAN.
much of which has heen perpetuated since written form
was given to the language hj the publication of Holguin's
214 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
Grammar in 1607. Besides the well-known drama of
Ollantay, the collections comprise numerous popular songs
or ballads, love ditties, elegies, and the like, all in a
tender, melancholy strain.
The Uncultured Peoples — The Antis
The other aborigines, most of whom were never
brought under Quichuan influences, and still dwell along
the river banks or in the wilds of the Montana, are
officially grouped in two social classes — the Tndios m msos
or Gristianos, who are generally baptized, somtwhat
settled, speak or understand Quichuan, and live on
friendly terms with the civilised communities, and the
Indios hravos, the wild tribes, still mostly independent,
and in the same state of nature as their forefathers in
pre-Columbian and pre-Inca times.
In the Upper Ucayali basin the most numerous and
powerful of these savage nations are still the Antis,
who gave their name to the eastern province of Antisuyu,
and are referred to in the above-mentioned Quichua
drama of Ollantay. The Gam^jas, as they are also called,
have always been dreaded for their ferocious character,
and are even said to have ' been cannibals. They wear
a long robe witli holes for the head and arms, allow
their long, lank hair to hang down over their shoulders,
and are specially distinguished by the beak of a toucan
on a bunch of feathers worn as an ornament round the
neck.
The Chunchos
Closely allied to the Antis are their neighbours, the
equally wild Ghunchos, who roam the forests east of
Cuzco and Tarnia. Here they form three somewhat
PERU
215
distinct groups — the IfuaxhijJai/rls, Tuyumris, and Siri-
iieyris-^who were said to have sprung from the royal
Inca tribe, and in any case were for a time hrought
under (^uichuan rule by the Inca Yupanqui. Other
groups, Itelonging to the same widespread family, range
into the province of Caravaya, and some have been met
A CHUNCHO FUOM THE MONTANA.
in the forests of Paucartampu, where they live in
well-constructed huts with walls 6 feet high, and good
pointed straw roofs, generally perched on rising grounds.
Socially the various Chuncho trihes present consideral^le
differences, some being pure savages, who roam the forests
in quest of game, have no religion whatever, bury the
dead in the huts, and are generally fierce, cruel, and
216
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
untamable, while others are advanced enough to cultivate
maize, yams, plantains, and pine-apx^les, and erect fixed
abodes large enough to accommodate twenty persons.
Topography— Railway Enterprise
When it is considered that centuries before the dis-
covery Peru was constituted in an organised state of vast
size, that in colonial times it formed the chief Spanish
Viceroyalty in the southern continent, and that since
then immense sums of money have been lavished in
developing its natural resources, surprise may well be
expressed at the small number of urban centres that have
sprung up in this region. The subjoined table of the
chief places on the Pacific and Atlantic slopes shows
that there are only six towns in the whole country with
more than 10,000 inhabitants: —
Pacific Slope
Atlantic
Slope
Lima
104,000
Cuzco .
. 22,000
Callao
35,000
Ayacucho .
9,000
Arequipa .
.34,000
Iquitos
8,000
Chiclayo ,
11,000
Cajaniarca .
7,000
Monsefu .
11,000
Cerro de Pasco
. 7,000
Trujillo ,
8,000
Huanuco
. 5,000
On the seaboard north of Lima the most important
place is TrnJiUo, founded by Pizarro in 1535 at the
mouth of the Pdo de Moche, amid the ruins of Grand
Chirnu, probably the largest city in pre-Columbian
America. Owing partly to the absence of natural
havens on this seaboard, exposed to heavy surf, none of
the coast towns north of Callao have acquired great
commercial importance. Trujillo is connected with the
port of Salaverri, formerly Garita de Moche, by a coast-
line running north to Chicama and Ascope through an
PERU
217
arid district, which has heeii restored to fertility by
repairing the old Chimu canals. Here is still to be seen
a vast reservoir built of solid concrete, and capable of
holding nearly 1800 million cubit feet.
A few miles farther north stands the port of
Pacasmayo, for which brighter prospects seem reserved.
Here is the seaward terminus of a line which at present
runs a short distance inland to Guadalupe and Chepen,
but is eventually to be continued through Cajamarca
and over the Cordilleras down to the Amazon valley.
At a time when money was being lavished on these
ambitious railway schemes, this line was spoken of
merely as the first section of a trans-continental trunk
line between the two oceans. Chimhote, on El Eerrol
Bay, south of the Eio Santa, is the starting-point of
another project known as the Huaraz line, which has
already been carried up the Huaylas valley to Becuay,
centre of a mining district 11,000 feet above sea-level.
This line traverses the department of Ancachs, which
takes its name from the little Ancachs rivulet, where the
insurgents gained a decisive victory over the Spanish
forces. The Ancachs joins the right bank of the Eio
Santa just below Yungay, at the foot of the Cerro de
Huascan. A little lower down is the town of Caraz,
noted for its quicksilver and coal mines, and for a
peculiar variety of the potato, wdiich ripens in three
months. Below Caraz follows Huaylas, which gives its
name to the upper course of the Eio Santa. All these
places are stations on the Huaraz railway, which follows all
the windings of the fluvial valley to its source at Eecuay.
Below Chimbote, the coast town of Huaura, at the
mouth of the Eio Supe, is the present terminus of a coast-
line which runs by Huaiicho, Chancay, and Ancon to
Lima. During the progress of the works on this line
218 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
a cvitting in the dunes at Ancon revealed an extensive
old burial-place, from which have been recovered great
quantities of objects illustrating almost all branches of
the Peruvian arts and industries. These objects — pottery,
textile fabrics, ornaments, arms, utensils, and implements
of all kinds — had been deposited- with the dead, and,
thanks to the extremely dry climate, were found for the
most part in a good state of preservation. The dead
themselves were mummified and wrapped in packs enclos-
ing one or more bodies, or even several members of a
family, and so arranged as to present the rough appear-
ance of a single human being with a false head, but very
broad and without any attempt at .reproducing the
contour-lines of the figure. The outer wraps varied in
quality with the social position of the departed, some
being extremely rich, others plain and coarse as sack-
cloth, as it was inside these wraps that were found most
of the articles stowed away with the dead to supply them
with all their requirements in the after life.^
After the overthrow of the Incas, it was at once seen
that the seat of the new government would have to be
removed from their inland capital, Cuzco, to some point
on the seaboard affording easy communication with the
metropolis. In the absence of any good havens, the
most favourable site seemed to be the open roadstead
at the mouth of the little river Eimac, which was
sheltered by the island of San Lorenzo and a projecting
tongue of land from the west and south-w^est winds.
Here was the seaport of Callao, which now became the
outlet of the new capital Lima, founded in 1535 by
Pizarro on the left bank of the river three or four miles
from the coast.
1 W. Reiss and A. Stubel, Peruvian Antiqidtics. The Necropolis of
Ancon in Peru, English edition by A. H. Keane, 1881-83.
PERU
219
In anticipation of a greatness destined never to be
realised, the " City of Kings," as it was called, was laid
out on a large scale. But the " Empire City of the New
World " has disappointed the hopes of its inhalutants,
and is already outstripped in wealth, trade, and popula-
tion by Valparaiso, Buenos Ayres, Rio de Janeiro, and
a few other places in South America alone.
Lima stands almost at the very foot of the Coast
Itange, whose advanced spurs rise immediately above the
Hat roofs of the houses. From these heights a com-
manding view is afforded of the city, laid out like a
cliess-board, diversified chiefly by numerous churches,
conspicuous amongst which is the fine old Spanish cathe-
dral on the " Plaza Mayor." In this bird's-eye view are
also comprised the often really magnificent inner courts
«jf the more aristocratic quarters. But what imparts to
Lima quite a characteristic aspect are the countless little
220 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRArHY AND TRAVEL
square structures on the flat roofs, provided with trap
windows, which serve the double purpose of ventilating
and lighting the interior.
Scarcely a drop of rain falls for years together,
although now and then the saturated atmosphere pre-
cipitates a heavy dew sufficient to moisten the surface
of the ground.
In the Plaza Mayor, which, as is usual in South
American cities, forms a perfect square, stands the
cathedral, flanked with two lofty towers. The centre of
the square is laid out as a public garden, ornamented
with fountains, statues, and marble seats, and enclosed
on three sides by covered colonnades, beneath which
wares of all kinds are exposed for sale. Amongst the
scientific and literary institutions are the University
of San Marcos, the oldest in South America, several
libraries and museums, which were despoiled of some
of their treasures when the place was occupied by the
Chilians during the war of 1879-81.
The monotonous appearance of the straight lines of
streets is relieved by the varied forms of the projecting
balconies, by the elegant warehouses mostly in the hands
of strangers, and the numerous tiendas or retail-shops,
chiefly owned by Italians, of whom there are many
thousands in Lima. There are also a good many Germans
and French, the latter mostly hotel -keepers, perfumers,
and owners of coffee-houses and fashionable establish-
ments. The English and Americans, on the contrary,
are found chiefly in Callao, where the shipping interests
are centred.
This flourishing seaport, which is now provided with
repairing docks and a new harbour 50 acres in extent,
does fully one-half of the foreign trade of the country.
It is connected with the capital by shaded avenues, and
PERU
221
two railways seven miles long. One of these forms a
seaward extension of the famous Oroya line, which is
justly regarded as one of the greatest engineering
triumphs of modern times. In the short distance of
106 miles it ascends the western slopes from sea-level
at Callao to a height of 15,665 feet at the culminating
point on the crest of the Cordillera. From this point,
the highest yet reached by any railway, the eastern
CALLAO UAKllUlK.
section, 30 miles long, falls with a gradient of 120 feet
per mile down to a level of 12,178 at its present
terminus, Oroya, on the Eio Jauja in the Amazon basin.
The total length is thus 136 miles ; but the line is to be
continued eastwards through Tarma and Chanchamayo,
down to some point about the head of the navigation of
the Maraiion.
The works, everywhere interrupted by the Chilian
war, have since been slowly resumed at several points.
222 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
An English company has undertaken to complete the
whole of the Central Peruvian system, on which
£36,000,000 have already been expended. From
Oroya, the central station, several lines are to be con-
structed to Cerro de Pasco, the chief silver -mining
centre in Peru, and to other places on the plateau, so
as to effect junctions northwards with the Pacasmayo-
Cajamarca line, and southwards through Tonquini,
Ayaciwho, and Cuzco with Sicuani, present terminus of
the Mollendo-Puno system. Even before the war the
main section of this system had already been completed
from Mollendo on the coast, north of Arica, to Puno on
the north-west side of Lake Titicaca, climbing the
Cordillera to an extreme altitude of 14,640 feet at
Crucero Alto. Prom Puno two branches are to run
south to Bolivia and north to the Oroya system. Since
the war the northern branch has been carried as far as
Sicuani, and is advancing in the direction of Cuzco,
while a beginning has been made with the section
between Ayacucho and Tonquini.
Even when all these sections are constructed, other
branches will be needed to connect the Pacific termini of
the three trunk lines — Pacasmayo, Callao, and Mollendo
— with the Amazonian affluents, at points where they
become navigable below the falls and rapids. One of
these necessary connections, already begun, is to run
from Oroya through Tarma down the Perene valley to
the Ucayali ; while another, branching from Ayacucho
northwards, down the ]\Iantaro valley to the Apurimac-
Tambo confluence, has at least been surveyed. Certainly
many more millions will be required to carry out the
whole scheme, and until this is done the magnificent
works already executed can never pay. At present the
transport of goods between the Pacific and Amazonian
PERU
223
basins varies according to circumstances from about
£35 to £70, or even £80 per ton, an almost prohibitive
charge for a scanty population laden with other heavy-
burdens.
Of the above-mentioned upland towns, whose pros-
pects are dependent on the development of the Central
BRIDGE OX THE OROYA RAILWAY.
Eailway system, the most noteworthy is Cuzco, ancient
capital of the Incas, and still a place of some importance.
It stands at an elevation of 11,400 feet on two torrents
flowing to the Upper Huilcamayo, some distance below
Sicuani, northernmost station of the Mollendo-Puno
railway. The walls of the houses and temples of the
ancient city are of such massive masonry that they
224 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
remain intact. Upon them have been erected most of
the churches, convents, and private mansions of the new
town. The names of the four quarters, designated from
the four points of the compass, and set apart by the
Incas for their subjects from the northern, southern,
eastern, and western provinces, are now disused. The
great central square has been' divided by houses into
two smaller squares, which are flanked by some of the
finest buildings of the Spanish city.
Conspicuous amongst these are the cathedral and
several other churches, whose handsome exteriors are
not unworthy of the ancient city. The cathedral
replaces the palace of one of the Incas. The church
of San Domingo is on the site of the old Temple of the
Sun, where stood a solid gold statue of the great orb,
tutelar deity of the Incas. On a neighbouring height,
laid out in terraces, still stand the massive ruins of the
Colcampata palace attributed to Manco-Capac, founder
of the dynasty. Above all rises the famous citadel of
Sacsah'ua77ian, which is said by Garcilasso de la Vega to
have been constructed by the luca, Viracocha, but is in
reality much older. After a stubborn resistance it was
captured by Fernando Pizarro in 1532. Cuzco may be
quickened into new life as soon as the railway is
completed, by which direct access will be afforded
through Puno and Arequipa to the coast at Mollendo.
Arequipa, the first important station above Mollendo,
from which it is distant 100 miles, is noted for its
earthquakes. Standing at an elevation of 7600 feet
under the shadow of Misti, in a volcanic district subject
to constant disturbances, this place has suffered much
from earthquakes, by which it was half ruined in 1600,
and again in 1868. Villa Hermosa, as it was called
by its founder, Francisco Pizarro in 1540, has claims to
PERU 225
distinction, and its inhabitants perhaps justly regard
themselves as the most enterprising and intelligent
citizens of the republic. Besides the already mentioned
observatory on Carmen Alto, a meteorological station has
been established on the neighbouring Mount Chachani
at an altitude of 16,280 feet, which is more than 2000
feet higher than that of Pike's Peak, Colorado, the next
highest on the globe.
In the rainless zone between Callao and Mollendo
some shelter is afforded by the Chincha Islands to the
open roadstead of Pisco, which has been chosen as the
starting-point of another Andean railway. A first
section, 45 miles long, has already been constructed
across the arid Pampa de Chunchanga district to lea, on
the right bank of the river of like name. Here it stops
for the present at the foot of the hills, but is eventually
to be continued up the slopes to the district about the
sources of the rivers lea and Chunchanga (Pisco), which
has long been celebrated for its rich silver ores. At the
head of the Chunchanga gorge stands the now almost
deserted station of Gastrovireina, so named in honour of
the wife of the Viceroy, Marquis of Canete, at a time
when the mining industry was at the height of its
prosperity. Of her it is related that a noble and
wealthy Indian lady, to whose child the Vice-Queen
stood godmother at this place, paved with silver slabs
the path which she had to take from her residence to
the church in order to attend the christening. But this
display of wealth was followed by a dire calamity — the
collapse of the richest galleries, crushing over 120 of
the underground toilers. Since then most of the mines
have been abandoned, and will probably not again be
opened until the completion of the projected railway
with the coast.
VOL. I Q
226
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
111 the district between Mollendo and the old Chilian
frontier two otlier lines were undertaken during the
period when railway speculation was at fever heat. The
northernmost of these was carried from 1U> (Ylo), a few
miles inland, to Moquegua in the direction of Lake
Titicaca, and there it is likely to stop for many years to
come. Better prospects may perhaps be in store for the
second, which runs from the important frontier town of
Arica to Tacna in the same direction, and also shares in
the busy life of the neighbouring Chilian nitrate in-
dustry. Arica, which was restored by Chile to Peru in
1898, marks the point where the main Andean axis
makes a sharp bend to the north-west. It is exposed
not only to underground disturbances, but also to con-
current seacjuakes, when the sea first retires to a con-
siderable distance from the shore, and then rushes back
with a force that nothing can resist. In 1868 a large
vessel was torn from its anchorage and borne on the
crest of a huge wave more than a mile inland. Then in
PERU 227
1877 the process was reversed, the sanie vessel being
carried half the distance back to its natural element,
without any loss of life to a little community of several
families who had in the interval established themselves
in the hull.
Natural Resources — Vegetable Products •
Hitherto the almost inexhaustible natural resources
of the alluvial Amazonian woodlands have been scarcely
more than tapped. Eeference has already been made to
the valuable species of chinch ona obtained some years
ago from this region. Tlie working of the best kind of
caoutchouc is now a considerable industry. Foremost
amongst the other products of the Montaiia is the
much-prized coca {Erijthroxylon coca), the tonic virtues
of which have been placed beyond doubt by modern
research. As a stimulant it is much used by the
natives, who chew the leaves mixed with the ashes of
Ghenoiiodiurii qiiinoa, and are thus enal>led to undergo
great tatigue on a scanty supply of food.
Gruano — Minerals
Formerly Peru possessed great sources of wealth in
its guano and nitrate deposits, Ijoth of which are of
extreme importance as fertilisers. But the guano-beds
are already nearly exhausted, while the nitrate fields have
passed into the hands of Chile since the war of 1879-81.
The richest guano deposits were those of the Chinclias, a
dreary arid group of rocky islets in the neighbourhood of
I'isco. The beds were worked from the surface down-
wards, the material being removed in layers, and con-
veyed on trams either to the molo or wharf or else to
the edge of the cliff and shot over into large barges, and
228 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
thence transferred to the vessels engaged in the trade.
In 1873 the export from the Chinchas amounted to
100,000 tons, and the deposits on the Guanajje and
Macahi islands were also being worked. Operations were
later extended to the Lolos and Viejas groups in Inde-
pendencia Bay, to the Lobillo and Huanillo islets in
Chiapana Bay, and to others at Punta Alba and Pabellon
de Pica. All these smaller beds, which had been seized
by the Chilians, have now been delivered over to the
Peruvian Corporation, which has been constituted to
develop the resources of the country for the mutual
benefit of the Peruvian Government and its foreign
(chiefly English) creditors.
Even the mineral industry, of which Peru was formerly
a chief centre, has greatly fallen off, and many of the
gold and silver mines have been closed, or yield but poor
returns. In 1897 the mining claims of all kinds — the
precious metals, copper, lead, zinc, quicksilver, sulphur,
salt, coal, and petroleum- — numbered 3475 ; yet the total
value of the minerals yearly exported now rarely exceeds
£700,000 or £800,000, while in 1896 the total silver
production fell short of 3,400,000 oz. Hence the under-
ground treasures of the country, which undoubtedly still
exist in great abundance and variety, have at least at
present more of a historical than of a practical interest.
Humboldt has estimated the actual quantity of tlie
precious metals extracted from the Peruvian mines under
the viceroyalty down to the year 1803 at £246,000,000,
and since then the mint of Lima alone issued silver
pieces to the value of £3,500,000 between the years
1826 and 1833. This was independent not only of the
Cuzco mintage, but also of the silver ingots and ores,
large quantities of which were exported during the same
period. Cerro de Pasco, centre of a rich argentiferous
PERU 229
district in the department of Junin, has also its smelting
works, where the silver ores are dealt with, and stamped
bars or ingots issued to the yearly value of about £300,000.
But Peru has long ceased to hold the first place as a
centre of the mining industry, and in this respect is
already surpassed not only by the United States, Australia,
and South Africa, but even by the neighbouring republics
of Chile and Bolivia.
But, even after most of the mines had for one reason
or another been closed, and when the guano-beds began
to o-ive out, it was discovered that the State possessed a
still scarcely touched source of immense wealth in the
nitrate and other mineral deposits of the southern
province of Tarapaca. On the maps this district figures
as part of the " Desert of Atacama," an expression which
also comprises the former Bolivian coast district of Anto-
fagasta, together with Tocopilla, Talcal, and other tracts
in North Chile. The whole territory is unquestionably
on the surface a desert in the strict sense of the term —
a dreary, treeless waste, for long ages forming part of the
South American arid zone. But below the surface pro-
bably no other region of the same extent possesses a
greater abundance of useful mineral products. Besides
the nitrates of soda and some other rich fertilisers slowly
accumulated beneath those rainless skies, here are con-
centrated in the relatively narrow space between the sea-
shore and the first Andean foothills great stores of borax,
iodine, coal, and rock-salt, besides an extraordinary variety
of minerals, such as gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, nickel,
and cobalt. In the northern part of the Peruvian coast
another source of wealth has been discovered in the almost
inexhaustible supplies of petroleum in the desert, 9 miles
in extent, between the rivers Chira and Tumbez. This
discovery goes far to make up for the loss of Tarapaca.
230 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Causes and Results of the Chilian War
But scarcely had the Peruvian Government laid hands
on these reserves of wealth, in order to replenish the
national coffers exhausted by reckless extravagance and
speculation, when frontier questions and tariff difficulties
were renewed or created by the two conterminous States,
also eager to secure as large a share as possible of the
lately discovered treasures. At that time Bolivia had
access to the sea through the district of Antofagasta,
wedoed in between South Peru and Xorth Chile. But
the southern boundary had fluctuated since 1861 between
23° and 24° S. lat., claimed respectively by Chile and
Bolivia, and under the new conditions a degree more
or less now became a matter of national importance.
Meantime Chilian speculators had poured into the debat-
able territory, and to the boundary question was added
the tariff dispute, when the Bolivian Custom-House officers
endeavoured to levy increased export duties on the
nitrates shipped by a Chilian company at the port of
Antofagasta. Thus arose the war of 1879-81, in which
Peru sided with Bolivia, and which resulted in the
cession by these States of the mineral districts of Tarapaca
and Antofagasta to the victorious Chilians. Thus also
Bolivia became, at least temporarily, a land-locked Power,
while Peru, half-ruined by a disastrous war, lost the
prospective means of meeting her ever-increasing liabilities
towards her foreign (almost exclusively British) creditors.
The Peruvian Corporation
A compromise had therefore to be effected, and thus
was created the so-called " Peruvian Corporation," to
which were transferred a large portion of the national
PERU 231
assets, to be developed by them in the mutual interest of
the State and of the bond-holders. Thus, in virtue of
the Grace -Donoughmore contract, ratified in January
1890, Peru was released from all responsibility in respect
of the public debt, which, with arrears of unpaid interest,
amounted at that date to £23,000,000, while all the
railways, guano deposits, mines, and lands of the State
were ceded to the bond-holders for a term of sixty-six
years. The expectation that by that time all liabilities
would be cleared off has scarcely been borne out so far.
Several important details of the agreement still remain
unsettled, and at a meeting of the Corporation in London
in January 1899 it was stated that the yearly revenue
was stationary at about £140,000, just enough to pay
the reduced interest upon the debentures.
Administration
Peru, in colonial times the most important of the
Spanish South American Viceroyalties, proclaimed her
independence in 1821, and after a severe struggle, con-
tinued for nearly four years, vindicated the claim in
1824. The present Constitution dates from October
1856, and, as revised, from November 1860. The
legislative power is vested in a Senate and a House
of Ptepresentatives, the former composed of provincial
deputies in the proportion of one for every 30,000 in-
habitants, the latter of members returned by the electoral
colleges of the provinces of each department, generally at
the rate of two for each province.
The executive is entrusted to a President and two
Vice-Presidents, elected for four years, and assisted by six
Cabinet Ministers, dependent on the President. There is
little fault to find witli the general scheme of adminis-
232 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
tration, which since the Chilian war has worked fairly
well. Although the Peruvian Corporation exercises no
o-overning functions, it tends indirectly to strengthen the
hands of the authorities, by stimulating local enterprise,
and thus fostering those industrial habits which make
for peace.
Although politically all classes are equal, religious
freedom is barred by the terms of the Constitution, which
not only recognises Catholicism as the State religion, but
also in principle forbids the public exercise of any other
form of worship. Practically, however, a measm-e of
tolerance is extended to the Protestant communities
(chiefly English and American), which have churches in
Callao and Lima.
Elementary instruction is compulsory, and also free in
the municipal schools. Even the high schools main-
tained by the State in the departmental capitals are in
great measure free, although a small fee is charged in
some places. There are universities at Cuzco and
Arequipa subordinate to that of Lima, which is the oldest
in the New World, its charter having been granted by
Charles V. The " TJniversidad de San Marcos," as this
central establishment is called, has a somewhat com-
plete curriculum, including faculties of theology, juris-
prudence, medicine, political and applied sciences.
Since the war the land forces have been reduced to
about 5000 men of all arms, and the navy to a single
cruiser, a few small steamers and a training ship.
To face page 232.
CHAPTEE VIII
BOLIVIA
Boundaries, Extent, Population — Physical Features — The Coast Range
and the Cordillera Real — The Cordillera de Cochabamba and the
Eastern Sierras — The Yungas Zone — Hydrography — The Titicaca
Closed Lacustrine Basin — -The Madre de Dios and Beni Rivers — The
Rio Grande and Mamore — The Mojos Lacustrine Depression — The
Pilcomayo — Climate — Flora — Fauna — Inhabitants— The Mojos— The
Chiquitos — The Chiriguanos— The Bolivians — Historic Retrospect-
Topography — Railway Projects — Resources — Minerals — Vegetable
Products — Communications — Administration.
Boundaries, Extent, Population
Landwards Bolivia is conterminous with as many as five
different States — -Peru and Chile on the west, Aroentina
and Paraguay on the south, and Brazil on the north and
east sides. But the boundaries are almost everywhere
purely conventional lines, drawn with little regard to the
physical features of the land, and leaving several frontier
questions still unsettled. After the war of 1879-81 the
littoral district of Antofagasta, nearly 30,000 square miles
in extent, was retained by Chile, and for a time Bolivia
was reduced to the position of an inland power. Here, by
the treaty of 1884, everything south of 23° S. lat. was
surrendered in perpetuity, while the section of the
Atacama desert between that parallel and the Eio Loa,
284 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
former frontier towards Peru, was first mortgaged to
Chile, and then in 1895 ceded absolutely, in exchange for
the little seaport of Mejillones del Norte between Iquique
and Pisagua in the old Peruvian province of Tarapaca.
Access to the Pacific was also once more secured by the
grant of a narrow strip running through the same
province to Mejillones. But against this concession Peru
has entered a formal protest, as being against her interests,
so that the arrangement can scarcely be considered final.
In the interior the boundary towards Chile was also
modified in 1884, and instead of following the crest of
the Coast Eange it has been deflected a little to the east
as far south as the Licancaur volcano, beyond which
point it trends slightly south by east to the frontier.
Towards Peru, Bolivia claims a contested line drawn from
the head of the Eio Yavary to that of the Amarumayo
(Madre de Dios), thence to and across Lake Titicaca to the
outlet of the Desaguadero, and from that point south-west
to the Eio Mauri, which is followed to the province of
Tacna, now held by Chile. But Peru makes the line
coincide with the course of the Beni from its source to
the Madeira. The Brazilian boundary, as fixed in 1875,
runs in the north from the head of the Yavary to the
Beni -Madeira confluence, and thence along the Eios
Mamore, Guapore (Itenez), and Verde to the Cerro de
Cuatro Hermanos. Here it trends east to the head of
the Eio San Matias, which is fallowed to Lake Uberaba,
from which point it is drawn at a little distance from,
but parallel with, the right bank of the Paraguay to
Puerto Pacheco, and thence along the river itself to
Paraguay. With this State the boundary, settled in
1894, forms a straight line between the left bank of the
Pilcomayo at 22° S. lat. and the right bank of the
Paraguay at Fort Olimpo (21° S.).
BOLIVIA 235
By the same Convention of 1894 the free navigation
of the main stream was granted to Bolivia, which thus
secured an outlet to the Atlantic by the Parana, that
river being also free to all flags. By the agreement of
1888 the boundary towards Argentina coincides with 22°
S. lat. between the Eios Pilcomayo and Bermejo, follows
this river for some distance to the south-west, and then
runs west towards the Sierra de Victoria, and round the
foot of the Sierra de Santa Catalina to the right bank
of the San Jvian, which is followed southwards to the
Chilian frontier.
Within these extremely arbitrary limits Bolivia has a
superficial area of 567,000 square miles, with a popula-
tion, according to the official estimates of 1890-98, of
about 2,000,000, distributed over the eight departments
as under : —
Departments.
Area in sq. miles.
Population
La Paz (le Ayacucho .
171,200
593,779
Potosi ...
52,084
360,400
Oruro
21,331
189,840
Sucre (Chuquisaca)
39,871
286,710
Cochabamba
21,417
360,220
Beni ....
100,551
26,750
Santa-Cruz de la Sierra
126,305
112,200
Tarija
34,599
89,650
Tota
1 . 567,360
2,019,549
Great uncertainty prevails both in respect of these
figures, which are raised by some authorities to 2,270,000
and reduced by others to less than 1,500,000, and also
regarding the constituent elements of the inhabitants.
These are usually grouped under three broad divisions,
— -full -blood aborigines, numbering from 200,000
to 300,000 ; mestizoes, but with a slight European
strain, leading sedentary lives in Christian communities,
236 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
speaking native languages, and numbering probably about
1,000,000; lastly, the so-called luhites, that is the civilised
ruling class, with a more decided strain of European blood,
of Spanish speech, though often familiar with Ayniara,
concentrated chiefly in the urban, agricultural, and mining
districts of the uplands (Bolivia proper), and numbering
perhaps 700,000 or 800,000.
It is easy to understand that, under a weak or dis-
orderly administration such as has for the most part
prevailed in Bolivia, heterogeneous populations of this
sort, with such a large preponderance of the Indian
element, must constitute a standing menace to the
stability of the State itself. Hence it is that in Bolivia
internal disorders often assume a more serious aspect than
elsewhere. During the last revolution, which broke out
in ISTovember 1898, fears were entertained of a general
rising of the natives, and such an event — always possible
— might lead to the intervention of the neighbouring
Powers, if not to the dismemlierment of the republic.
Physical Features — The Coast Eange and the Cordillera Real
That central section of the Andean uplands which is
comprised within Bolivian territory lies roughly between
10° S. lat. and the Tropic of Capricorn, about midway
between the parallels of the Amazon and Plate estuaries,
and over against the most elevated parts of the Brazilian
highlands. It has thus for long ages been somewhat
less exposed than the northern and southern sections to
the direct action of the moisture-bearing Atlantic winds,
and has consequently suffered less from the erosive effects
of the running waters, which have caused such a pro-
digious extent of denudation along the eastern slopes of
the Peruvian Ecuadorean and Chilian Andes.
BOLIVIA 237
The result is that the pristine configuration of the
whole system has been better preserved in Bolivia than
elsewhere. Here the Andean approach nearest to the
Brazilian uplands, and here is developed a far greater
■breadth of elevated plateau formations than in any other
part of the southern continent. The two main ranges,
that is to say, the Coast or Western Cordillera, and the
Andes properly so called, which in Chile and Argentina
are separated only by a relatively narrow tableland,
broaden out in Bolivia to such an extent as to enclose
one of the most spacious and elevated plateaux on the globe.
Moreover both chains, but especially the Andes, throw off
a number of secondary spurs and offshoots and even dis-
tinct sierras in the direction of the east, by which the
Bolivian system is brought at some points within
measureable distance of the Brazilian uplands.
To the Coast Eange, which is now included in Chilian
territory, belong several spurs and lateral ridges, with
some lofty summits, such as Taxiora or Chipicani, Sajama
(21,000 feet), Sapaya, Tua, and Viscachillas, all lying
well witliin the Bolivian frontier. But most of the
highest peaks occur in the Andes proper, which traverse
the whole region for about 560 miles in the normal
direction from south-east to north-west. Like the
Ecuadorean and Peruvian systems, the Bolivian Andes
have also their converging " knot," which here takes the
name of Apoloiamha, and is formed by the junction of
the Carabaya range, with the crests rising to heights of
16,000 and 17,000 feet on the north-east side of Lake
Titicaca.
The Cordillera Real (" Eoyal Cordillera "), as the
section of the Andes is called which skirts the east side
of Titicaca, presents a great diversity of aspects in its
numerous sharp peaks, conical, dome-like or bell-shaped
238 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
summits, penetrating iu many places above the snow-line,
which here stands at about 17,300 feet above sea-level.
In this section are grouped most of the giants of the
Bolivian highlands, such as the triple-crested lllampu
or Sorata, probable calminating point of the southern
ILLIMANI.
Continent (23,500 feet?), and its proud rival Illima^ii
(22,500), which also terminates in three snowy peaks.
The " Pic de Paris," one of the lower crests of Sorata,
was scaled by Wiener in 1877, and in September
1898 Sir Martin Conway for the first time ascended
the highest point of Illimani. " The last part of the
ascent was made by a long ice-wall, and across a huge
BOLIVIA 239
snow-plateau, leading finally up a snow-ridge to the
summit." ^
Illimani, which is unsurpassed for its imposing
GORGK XEAR THE CUZANACO MINE, ILLIMAM.
grandeur and varied aspects, rises close to La Paz above
the profound gorge through which the Titicaca basin
formerly sent its overflow to the inland sea. Beyond
^ Geograph. Jour., October 189S, p. 417.
240 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
this cleft the Cordillera Eeal is continued for a distance
of over 200 miles to the Cochahamha knot, which is
dominated by the 6'e?T0 Timari, 16,200 feet high.
Here the Cordillera bifurcates, throwing off to the left
an irregular eastern branch, while the main chain takes
a southern trend parallel with the Chilian Coast Eange.
This southern section, which again breaks into secondary-
ridges or isolated masses, is surmounted by several lofty
summits, such as Michaga (17,400 feet), Cuzco (17,930),
and (east of the main axis) Chorolque (18,480), Guadalupe
(18,900), Todos Santos (19,400), and Lqiez (19,680),
culminating point of South Bolivia. Lipez gives its
name to a transverse ridge, which closes the southern
extremity of the Titicaca-Aullagas depression, and thus
corresponds with the Vilcanota knot on the north side
of the same lacustrine basin.
The Cordillera de Cochahamba and the Eastern
Sierras
The region stretching east of the Cerro Tunari in the
direction of the plains presents an extremely rugged
aspect, although falling to a much lower level than the
great central plateau. In this " Bolivian Switzerland,"
as it has been called, the highest point appears to be the
Cerro de Potosi (15,400 feet), formerly a chief centre of
the silver-mining industry. Amid a chaos of precipitous
heights, detached crests and masses, thrown together
without any apparent order, it seems difficult to detect
any general plan. It results, however, from the rough
survey salready made, that the jagged sierras and short
ridges are mainly disposed in the same direction as the
two border ranges- — the northern Cordillera de Cocha-
bamba, which trends east and south-east, and the eastern
BOLIVIA 241
Misiones chain, whose outer escarpments rise like an
impassable rampart above the alluvial plains.
But the Andean system proper is still continued in
the direction of the Brazilian uplands by the Sierra
Chamaya, the Sierra Manaya skirting the right bank of
the Beni, the Cordillera de los Mosetenes, and several
other so-called " Little Andes " ramifying eastwards from
the Cochabamba heights. Still farther east the plains
about the southernmost sources of the Madeira are
diversified by a number of isolated gneiss masses, which
appear to have formerly belonged to the older Brazilian
system, from which they have been detached by the
erosive action of running waters. From the Indians
inhabiting their valleys they take the collective name of
the Chiquitos group, and are of some geographical interest,
because they stand at the nearest converging point of the
Andean and Brazilian orographic systems.
The Yungas Zone
This Chiquito district properly forms part of the
Yungas, which is the same word as the Peruvian Ymicas.
But whereas in Peru the Yuncas comprise the hot dry
coast-lands, the Bolivian Yungas, like the Peruvian Mon-
tana, is applied to all the hot, moist eastern slopes of the
Cordilleras merging in the wooded Amazonian plains. Both
terms are also extended to the natives of the respective
regions, and to that extent have acquired a somewhat
vague ethnical significance. Notwithstanding the op-
pressive heat and humidity, and the rank vegetation
of this trackless forest zone, the slopes and even the
plains watered by the Amazonian tributaries are said
to be singularly free from malarious fevers and
epidemics.
VOL. I K
242 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGIiAPHY AND TRAVEL
Hydrography
In Bolivia the drainage system is less complicated
than might be supposed from the large number of
streams traversing the Yungas zone in various directions.
Since the recent political changes there is no outflow
towards the Pacific Ocean, while the Alta Planicie
Central, that is, the " High Central Tableland," as the
great plateau is called, forms a closed basin with no
visible outlet, and is moreover a somewhat arid region,
with few and unimportant perennial streams. Hence it
is that all the rivers descending from the eastern slopes
find their way to the Atlantic Ocean either through the
Amazon or the Plate estuaries. It is further to be noted
that two only belong to the Plate system — the Parapiti
and the Pilcomayo — and that all the Amazonian affluents
reach the main stream not through independent channels,
but indirectly through the Madeira, largest of its southern
tributaries. It thus appears that, from the hydrographic
standpoint, the greater part of Bolivia is comprised
within the Madeira basin, whose three great western
head-streams — the Madre de Dios, Beni, and Eio G-rande —
collect all the surface-waters of the Yunoas district.
The Titicaca closed Lacustrine Basin
To the same fluvial system also formerly belonged the
now closed lacustrine basin, which is still flooded in the
north and centre by the already described lakes Titicaca
and AuUagas. This vast depression, which has a mean
breadth of 8 miles between the two main ranges, extends
for a total length of 5 miles from the Vilcanota to the
Lipez knot, and has an area of perhaps over 40,000
square miles. Hence when flooded it must have been the
BOLIVIA
243
largest lake, as well as the chief reservoir of the largest
river in the world. South of the Aullayas lauooii
nothing remains of the old lake except some saline
marshy tracts, or " pampas," as they are here called,
which occupy the lowest parts of the tableland, and are
fed by the Laca Ahuvra, flowing partly above and partly
under ground, south-westwards from AuUagas. Such
are the Pamixt de Coijxisa, and still farther south the
J-AKE TITICACA.
Pioivpa de Emfpeza, which according to the seasons are
alternately salt lagoons and dry or swampy plains. The
surface consists generally of a thick crust of }ture
crystallised and dazzling white common salt overlying an
underground lake, of which nothing can be seen except
where salt-works have been opened by the natives.
In the rainy season these pampas are often flooded to
a depth of 2 or 3 feet, and are then quite impassable,
but at other times may be safely crossed by avoiding
244 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TKAVEL
the deeper marshy parts. The whole of this southern
district, which lies at a considerably lower level than
Aullagas and about 1000 feet below Titicaca, is much
drier than the northern section of the tableland, and,
but for the difference of level, might be regarded as an
inland extension of the neighbouring Atacama desert.
In fact the district is often locally called the Desierto de
Lipez, from the transverse ridge enclosing the plateau on
the south.
The Madre de Dios and Beni Rivers
At present the divide between Titicaca and the
Amazon system stands 520 feet above the lake at the
La Paz gorge, through which the lacustrine basin
formerly found an outlet to the plains. But the great
river still draws some of its supplies from the eastern
slope of this divide, where the La Paz torrent rises on
the flanks of Illimani, and is soon after joined by the
Cotocayes, the Altamachi, and several other mountain
streams to form the Beni, one of the chief branches of
the Madeira. After a winding course of several hundred
miles through the Yungas district the Beni is joined on
its left bank below Carmen by the much longer and
more copious Madre de Dios, whose farthest head-stream,
the Inamhari, rises not far from the source of the Madidi,
one of the Beni affluents, and after skirting the escarp-
ments of the Carabaya range in Peru for some distance
in the direction of the north-west, as if to join the Eio
Purus, bends sharply round to the north-east. In fact
the Inamhari was long supposed to be the upper course
of the Purus, although the Incas had sent expeditions
down its banks and appear to have known that the
Mayu-Tata or Amaru-Mayo (" Snake river "), as they
called the Madre de Dios, really formed part of the Beni
BOLIVIA 245
system. But this fact was afterwards forgotten till the
year 18 60, when Faustino Maldonado floated down the
Madre de Dios to the Beni and the Madeira, where he
and some of his companions perished in the cataracts.
The doubts, which even still continued to prevail as
to the true relations, were not finally cleared up till
1884, when Armienta ascended from the Madeira and
Beni up the Madre de Dios to the point where it passes
from Peru into Bolivian territory, and found it a placid
navigable stream free of all obstructions and about 550
yards wide. At the Beni confluence, 20 miles above the
Madeira, it is over 1200 yards wide, but a little lower
down the navigation of the united stream, which retains
the name of the Beni, is interrupted by precipitous falls
30 feet high.
The Rio Grande and Mamor6
Far more extensive than the Beni is the Mamore
fluvial system, which with its widely-ramifying branches
fills up the whole of the alluvial plains between the
Bolivian and Brazilian uplands, communicates during
the floods with the upper affluents of the Paraguay, and
with some of its head-waters penetrates far into the
Cochabamba and Matto C4rosso ranges. Thus the Bio
Grande {Guapay), which by many geographers is regarded
as the true upper course of the Madeira itself, has its
source far to the south not a great way from Oruro on
the plateau between the Cordillera Eeal and the Cocha-
bamba range. After traversing the whole of the plateau
in a south-easterly direction, it sweeps round with a
magnificent bend to the north and north by west to the
Mojos plains, where there is a great meeting of the
waters locally known as the Junta de los Bios.
Here the Eio Grande is usually stated to take the
246 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
name of the Mamore, which it retains for the rest of its
course to the junction of the Itenez {Guapord) from Brazil
to form the Madeira. From this it might be supposed
that the Mamore is merely the lower course of the Eio
Grande, whereas it is an independent river which con-
verges with the Eio Grande, and its tributary the Piray
or Sard, jointly with the Yapacani, the Chimori, and the
Chapari at or about the Junta de los Eios, above the old
mission station of Loreto. All these affluents, which are
navigable by canoes nearly to their sources at the foot of
the Cochabamba range, merge at the Junta in a single
stream, which retains the name of the Mamore to the
Guapore confluence, although the Eio Grande is much the
longer branch, but so shallow that it is quite useless for
navigation. The true Junta, described as a magnificent
meeting of waters, is at the confluence of the Mamore, here
500 yards wide, with the Sara, the name given by the
natives to the united Eio Grande and Piray, the latter
flowing from the Santa Cruz district and joining the left
bank of the Eio Grande about 40 leagues above the Junta.
All these rivers are continually shifting their beds in
the forest region through which they flow. " They
undermine the banks on one side, which, falling away,
form the numerous curves on the convex side of which
the mud and sand brought down by the current is
deposited, and playas (shoals) and banks are formed on
which a forest grows in course of time. The river on
the concave side of the curve is continually causing the
trees of the terra fir ma to fall and obstruct the water-
way ; a barricade or palisada is formed, the river then
returns in exceptionally high floods to its old course on
the convex shore, bursting through the playas and sand-
banks, and so the ever-recurring changes of the river-
course continue. In illustration of this, I saw on the
BOLIVIA 247
Eiver Chapari a place where the current was breaking
down a bank that was apparently terra firma, and had
trees growing on it that were of great age. At the foot
of this bank, and under some 15 feet of earth, was a
deposit of timber, blackened, and, in fact, almost car-
bonised by time and pressure of the superincumbent
earth. Eroni the manner in wdiich these logs were
deposited, one above the other, it was evident that they
formed part of a huge collection of drift-wood, such as
may often be seen collected together in many parts of
the rivers." ^
The Mojos Lacustrine Depression
Above the Guapore confluence, where the united
stream takes the name of the Madeira, the Mamore with
its ramifying affluents traverses that part of the Yungas
zone which reaches its lowest level in the Mojos plains,
that is to say, the bed of the former inland sea, where
it was contracted to a relatively narrow sound between
the Andean and the Brazilian highlands. Here the
divide between the Amazon and Plate basins is still so
low that the waters of the head-streams are inter-
mingled during the rainy season, and after the subsidence
a number of shallow depressions either remain permanently
flooded or else form saline morasses, like the Coipasa and
Empeza pampas in the southern part of the Alta Planicie
Central.
These lacustrine formations are numerous, especially
in the level region between the middle courses of the
Beni and the Mamore, where the Boguaguado lagoon is
said to cover a space of several hundred square miles
even in the dry season. Owing to the same general lie
of the land the Bio Para'piti, which rises at the base of
1 E. D. Mathews, Up the Amazon and Madeira Rivers, p. 137.
248 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the outer escarpments south of the Eio Grande bend,
winds with such a sluggish current eastwards in the
direction of the Paraguay that it seems at times to be
lost in marshy tracts, draining both to the Amazon and
Plate basins.
The Pilcomayo
Somewhat more decided, though still in places scarcely
perceptible, is the incline of the Bio Filcomayo, which,
although it has its source on the uplands close to that of
the Ptio Grande, belongs entirely, to the Plate system.
After forcing its way through several intervening ridges
to its junction with the Pilaya above San Francisco, it
flows across the Gran Chaco plains in a normal south-
easterly direction to Lambare, on the left bank of the Eio
Paraguay six miles below Ascencion, capital of Paraguay.
The numerous attempts made to determine the true
character of this great fluvial artery, which seemed to
possess such vital economic importance for the neigh-
bouring states of Bolivia, Argentina, and Paraguay, have
mostly been thwarted, as much by the impracticable nature
of the sluggish stream itself, as by the hostility of the
fierce Toba natives inhabiting its densely wooded and in
places half- submerged banks.
One of the most successful expeditions was that
carried out in 1890 by Lieut. 0. J. Storm, who, however,
was unable to ascend much more than 300 miles above
the confluence, in a steamer built for the purpose and
drawing only 8 inches when loaded. " The river," this
explorer tells us, " has an average width of 30 yards,
and its banks are 4 to 5 yards high, covered in some
parts with dense forests, while in others the aspect
changes into vast plains dotted with palms. There also
exist extensive swamps. The depth is very variable.
BOLIVIA 249
and entirely dependent on the rainfall. The course of
the Pileomayo is entirely tortuous, with very short and
sudden bends, making it difficult even for a small steamer
to wind her way through the overhanging trees from both
sides, and especially the numerous raigones (" snags ") offer
great obstacles and even dangers for the navigation. In
some parts the raigones are so abundant that the river-
bed at low vfater looks like a forest of dead trees. We
had to stop at every moment to cut our way through,
and at times the men were scarcely out of water the
whole day. It is all hard wood, and even the best axes
break." '
The main result of the expedition was that the
Pilcomayo, which has no regular or periodical rise or fall,
but only sudden freshets caused by sudden downpours, " is
not navigable for commercial purposes " {ih.). Its upper
course alone lies within Bolivian territory, beyond which
it serves for about 800 miles as the boundary between
Argentina and Paraguay.
Climate
As in the other Andean regions the climates are
determined far more by elevation than by latitude ; in
other words, they are disposed vertically rather than
horizontally. Thus, whatever the distance from the
equator, the mean annual temperature, which in the
Yungas zone stands at about 74° F. up to 2000 feet,
falls to 66° on the Cochabamba plateau (8000 to 8500
feet), and to 50° at La Paz and on the central tableland
(11,900 to 12,500 feet). Higher up, the slopes and
crests of both Cordilleras penetrate into an Arctic region,
which is uninhabitable even where not clothed with a
^ Geograph. Jour., January 1896, p. 84.
250 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
snowy mantle throughout the year. The severity of the
dry whiter season, from April to August, is somewhat
tempered on the Alta Planicie by the moderating action
of the great lake. But the most favoured zone, where
all the large towns and most of the settled populations
are concentrated, lies about the lower slopes of the Cor-
dillera Eeal and the Cochabamba plateau, between the
altitudes of 8000 and 10,000 feet, with a mean annual
temperature oscillating between 50° and 60° F.
This region is exposed to the dry south-east trade
winds, which have lost most of their moisture before
reaching the Bolivian uplands, and are followed by the
intermittent rains prevailing throughout the wet summer
season from November to February. But the rainfall is
on the whole less copious than on the more northern
slopes, which are exposed to the moist Atlantic winds
sweeping up the Amazon valley, and perhaps to this
cause, combined with the greater development of the
plateau formation, Bolivia may be indebted for its general
salubrity and relative immunity from epidemics, even on
the low-lying Yungas zone. Here the Coni valley, which
drains to the Chapari at the low level of about 950 feet
above the sea, and is covered with a less dense and
rank vegetation than the montana, enjoys a delightful
climate, where mosquitoes and other insect pests are less
troublesome, and " fever and ague are very little if at all
known." ^
Still more favoured is the Cochabamba region, which
" enjoys an almost perpetual summer, whilst the nights
are pleasantly cool, and therefore invigorating to consti-
tutions depressed by the humid heat of the Madeira and
Amazon valleys. There seems to be little difference all
the year round. Certain months have more rain than
' Mathews, p. 186.
BOLIVIA 251
others, but. even then the rain only falls in the shape of
good, heavy showers, lasting, perhaps, an hour or so,
when the sun breaks out again. A thoroughly wet day
is a great rarity in Cochabamba, although at higher and
lower altitudes, in the same parallel of latitude, such days
are of frequent occurrence, while the central plains of
Bolivia seem to have just a desirable amount of lainfall
and no more. Fever and ague are quite unknown, and
if sanitary matters were attended to, Cochabamba might
soon be free from diseases of any kind. But unfortunately
at present such sicknesses as small-pox and scarlet fever
are got rid of with difficulty, owing to the filthy habits
of at least four-fifths of the natives, who seem to be quite
without any notions of public cleanliness" (ih. p. 234).
Flora
But, if less abundant than in the north, the rainfall
still amply suffices to sustain a vegetation which for
exuberance and variety of forms is probably unsurpassed
in any part of the world. Its luxuriance is mainly due
to the natural fertility of the soil, while for the astonish-
ing number of distinct species Bolivia has to thank its
central position in the southern continent, which has
enabled it to attract immigrants from the Peruvian, the
Brazilian, and all the other surrounding vegetable zones.
Vast forest tracts, abounding in cabinet and dye-woods,
medicinal and other useful plants, are continuous along
the lower slopes and at the foot of the outer Cordilleras,
while some varieties of the ubiquitous palm family range
to great heights on the flanks of the Cochabamba
mountains.
Amongst the numerous useful vegetable products of
the Yungas district may be mentioned an excellent variety
252 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
of chinchona, and the copal tree, with its easily extracted
resin, by which the natives of the woodlands light up
their habitations. Coffee also of prime quality here
flourishes side hj side with rice, sugar-cane, pine-apples,
and coca, which, as in Peru, is extensively used by the
Indians of the uplands as a stimulant. The more open
savannahs farther south and east yield abundance of the
richest pasture, while European alimentary plants, such
as wheat, barley, and pulse, are found associated with the
indigenous maize and potatoes on the arable upland
tracts.
In the Mojos territory the old cocoa plantations, here
called " chocolatales," which were laid out by the Indians
under the guidance of the Jesuits 200 years ago, are stiU
kept up in the Exaltacion district and other parts. But
they are now claimed as Government property, and
farmed out to speculators, who make good profits, as the
plant needs very little attention, and thrives even if left
to itself. The chocolate from these plantations is quite
equal, if not even superior, to the highly-prized " Mera-
villa " of Venezuela, and when the communications are
improved will certainly form an important article of the
export trade with Europe.
On the uplands quinoa and potatoes are amongst the
most valuable alimentary plants. Quinoa is a small
grain about the size of millet, which, when boiled or
soaked, yields a gelatinous substance forming the staple
food of the Aymara Indians. Potatoes are largely con-
sumed in the form of chvMo, that is, sliced and cut into
cubes the size of dice and then exposed to the frosty
nights till they acquire a dry corky appearance. In
this state they keep any length of time, and are much
used with clnqj^ (soup), although considered tasteless by
most travellers.
BOLIVIA
253
From maize is obtained the national drink, cJiicha, of
which there are two varieties, chicha cocida (" boiled ")
and mascada (" chewed "), a concoction prepared, likQ the
Polynesian kava, by a process of mastication, and freely
taken by everybody, from the president down to the
humblest peasant.
Fauna
Bolivia, considering the rigorous climate, has no dearth
of indigenous animals on its lofty plateaux. The llama,
CAPYBARA.
alpaca, vicuna, guanaco, chinchilla, viscacha, are far from
exhausting the list. In the montana are the capybara,
a large rodent, the peccary, tapir, and many other useful
animals. Almost every form of South American bird-life
is met in the woodlands or on the uplands, amongst them
some lovely varieties of the humming-l)ird, frequenting the
highest slopes of the Cerro de Potosi over 14,000 feet
254 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
above sea-level. lu the Yungas district is met an in-
digenous species of stork, locally called hata, which stands
about 5 feet high, covers 8 feet 6 inches with its extended
wings, and has a curiously up-turned black beak about a
foot long. Its flesh makes excellent eating, although
this is, perhaps, a point of little consequence in a country
where nearly all beasts, birds, and fishes are indifferently
consumed not only by the aborigines but also by many
of the half-breeds.
On the highlands the llama is used as a pack animal,
and the alpaca for its wool. Both these valuable animals
are domesticated. The vicuna is wild, and roams freely
in herds of from four or five to forty or fifty, keeping
mainly to the central plateau. Here the characteristic
carrion birds are the condor, eagle, and vulture, which prey
upon the mules and other animals falling exhausted along
the caravan tracks. ''• Often, when riding over the Andes, a
huge dark shadow comes suddenly over the path, and the
traveller, looking upwards, sees the magnificent condor
floating in the bright sunlight, and rising to his resting-
place amongst the snow-clad peaks" {ib. p. 336). All
share in the same feast, precedence being taken by the
condor, who is followed in their turn by the eagle and
the vulture.-
Inhabitants— The Mojos
In Bolivia the transitions between the different
ethnical and cultural groups are perhaps less abrupt than
in most other parts of Spanish America. The natives
of the seaboard and of the uplands — Atacamenos, Aymaras,
and Quichuas — had all been organised in settled com-
munities by the conquering Incas, while the unreclaimed
aborigines of the eastern slopes and plains appear for the
most part to have always been farther removed from the
150LIVIA 255
savage state than the Chunchos and the other fierce wild
tribes of the Peruvian montana. Even those who, like
the Yuracar^s of the Mamore head -streams, are still
called harharos, are "much quieter and more tractable
than the mixed races of Brazil," and in fact are really
mansos, that is, " tame," being called barbaros only
" because they refuse to be baptized into the Eonian
Catholic Church." ^ Soon after the Spanish conquest
large numbers of the Yungas tribes proved highly
susceptible to humanising influences, and readily grouped
themselves in permanent and orderly communities round
about the missionary stations along the banks of the Eios
Beni, Mamore, Guapore, and their numerous affluents.
Two of these groups — the Mojos and the Chiquitos —
comprise each a great many separate tribes, speaking ten
or twelve different languages, yet all living in perfect
harmony and combining together for the common welfare.
The Mojos, who give their name to the old lacustrine
depression between the Beni and the Mamor^, had already
voluntarily submitted to the Inca Yupanqui, and were
afterwards gathered by the Jesuits into fifteen mission
villages, where they still number about 30,000.
Their Christianity, however, in which Catholic dogma
plays a very subordinate part, is sometimes associated
with some extremely rude and realistic observances.
Indian dances are allowed, at certain feasts, to be intro-
duced after the service of the mass.
These Mojos Indians are amongst the most orderly,
industrious, and intelligent inhabitants of the republic,
although treated worse than slaves by their Bolivian
masters. They are described as "a grave, sedate, and
thoughtful people," good husbandmen, skilful in the
use of the lasso, which they have adopted instead of the
1 Mathews, pp. 81 and 174.
256 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
bow and arrow, and are regarded as perhaps the most
expert boatmen in the whole of the Amazonian region.
They are met in this capacity at all the riverine ports as
far as Manaos on the north side of the Amazon, and are
everywhere highly esteemed and trusted by the white
traders. Although their arithmetic gets no farther than
the numerals 4 or 5, the Mojos are amongst the few
South American peoples who were credited with a writing
system, which, however, consisted of nothing more than
a few simple strokes drawn on wooden tablets.
The Chiquitos
More rudimentary even than the Mojo numeral system
is that of the Chiquitos, some of whom appear to have
no terms for the ciphers beyond one} Yet they are a
bright, intelligent people, more cheerful than the Mojos,
and equally industrious. Their collective Spanish name,
Chiquitos, meaning " Little Folk," does not refer directly
to their stature (though that is short, averaging about
5 feet or less), but to the circumstance that when the
whites first invaded their territory they found the door-
ways of the huts so very low that the natives who had
fled to the woods were supposed to be dwarfs.
The Chiquitos, who occupy the district about the
head-waters of the Kio Guapore in Brazil, and parts of
the province of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, in Bolivia,
have developed a sort of communistic or co-operative
system, which works better than similar systems in
more civilised lands. The produce of their cotton and
sugar-cane crops is sold for the benefit of the community,
1 Even etama, the word used for one, really means "alone," one object
taken apart from the rest (Dr. L. L. Conant, The Numeral Concept : Its
Origin and Development, 1896V
BOLIVIA 257
and a fund is thus formed for the relief of the infirm and
aged. For reducing the sugar they make their own
copper boilers, and also ply several other trades, such as
straw-plaiting, weaving, and dyeing. When they foncy
striped trousers, rows of white and yellow cotton are
planted, and when blue is fashionable, a row of indigo is
added. Coffee, cacao, and vanilla are also grown, and
the Chiquitos, who trouble themselves little about politics,
may claim to rank amongst the most useful citizens of
the adjacent republics.
Their happy, light-hearted disposition, shown by a
constant round of visits accompanied by much music and
revelry, is all the more remarkable, since the position of
their territory about the Spanish and Portuguese frontiers
exposed them to endless troubles during the lawless times
of the colonial regime. First attacked and butchered by
the ferocious adventurer, Alvarez, surnamed Cabeza de
Vaca (" Cow -Head"), they were next raided from the
Portuguese side by the Paolistas in quest of slaves for
the mines and plantations of Brazil, and then plundered
from the opposite quarter by the Spanish traders of Santa
Cruz de la Sierra. Even the Jesuits, who came to evan-
gelise them in the seventeenth century, were accompanied
by small-pox and other epidemics which threatened to
exterminate the whole nation. Yet they still survive, to
the number of certainly over 20,000, divided into as
many as forty distinct tribes speaking about a dozen
different languages.
The Chiriguanos
Still more numerous are the Chiriguanos, a large
branch of the Guarani race, who have from remote times
been separated by wide spaces from the kindred people
of Brazil and Paraguay. A considerable section are
VOL. I y
Z0» COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
settled as nominal Christians in the stations along both
sides of the Eio Grande. The bulk of the nation
are still in the wild state, roaming the forests right up
to the foot of the Bolivian Andes. But even these
children of nature bear a good character, and have the
reputation of being of industrious habits, and good stock-
breeders. They also till the land in some districts, and
even seek employment in various capacities amongst the
settled populations. The Chiriguanos were formerly
noted for their strict observance of the strange custom
of the Couvade, which is prevalent amongst so many of
the South American aborigines.
The Bolivians — Historic Retrospect
Of the civilised ruling classes, some are of pure Spanish
descent, while many are Mestizoes. Their country, in
colonial times, was the Presidency of Upper Peru or
Charcas.
Upper Peru was under the Peruvian Viceroyalty until
1776, when it was transferred to Buenos Ayres. After
the Independence it was formed into a separate republic
with the name of Bolivia, in honour of Bolivar, the
Colombian General. His lieutenant, General Sucre, was
the first President, 1826-28. Santa-Cruz, a pure Indian,
established a firm administration from 1829 to 1839.
He was a man of undoubted ability and enlightened
views. Unfortunately he was also ambitious, and his
interference in the internal affairs of Peru in 1836
ended Id irretrievable disaster. After his decisive
victories over the Peruvian generals, Gamarra and
Salaverry, he united the two republics in a confederacy
based on an offensive and defensive alliance, which was
aimed especially at the aggressive policy of Chile.
BOLIVIA 259
The challenge was accepted by that State, which
invaded Peru, seized the capital, and not only over-
threw Santa Cruz himself with great slaughter at the
battle of Yungai in 1838, but also broke up the Con-
federacy by sowing dissensions between the two allies.
The tide of invasion was now directed against Bolivia,
and although Gamarra was again defeated, Santa Cruz
was not restored to power, because accused by his enemies
of aiming at a dictatorship, or even at royalty itself
Since the retirement of Santa Cruz, Ballivian (1841-47)
and Linares (1857-61) have been enlightened rulers;
and since 1880 four presidents have served their regular
terms of four years. The best of these was General
Campero, 1880-84.
Topography — Railway Projects
In 1828 the constitutional capital of Bolivia was
declared to be Chuquisaca, or Sucre. The actual capital
and centre of trade is La Paz. The subjoined table shows
that there are other towns, with 10,000 inhabitants and
upwards, nearly all situated either on the central plateau or
in the healthy upland zone east of the Cordillera Pieal : —
La Paz . . . 45,000
Sucre . . . 26,000
Cochabaniba . 25,000
Potosi . . . 20,000
Oruro . . . 15,000
Santa Cruz . . 11,000
Huanchaca . . 10,000
Tarija . . . 10,000
Of these places two only — Oruro and Huanchaca —
stand on the central tableland, and these are consequently
amongst the most elevated towns in Bolivia. Oruro,
which figures largely in the local records, claimed to be,
next to Potosi, the largest city in the whole of the present
Bolivia during the seventeenth century, when the popula-
tion approached 80,000. It stands at an altitude ot
260 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
11,720 feet at the northern extremity of Lake Aullagas,
not far from the now exhausted or abandoned silver-
mines to which its prosperity was due. The neighbour-
ing tin-mines are still worked, and the output has even
been increased since the extension of the Huanchaca
railway to Oruro. Huanchaca, till lately an obscure
hamlet 13,500 feet above sea-level, lies due south of
Oruro in a rich argentiferous district, overlooking the
saline plains of the Pampa de Empeza.
Mining operations have been greatly stimulated by
the completion of the Chilian trunk line from Anto-
fagasta on the coast to Huanchaca, and at present this
district yields more silver ores than all the rest of
Bolivia. The railway is eventually to be continued from
Oruro along the western foot of the Cordillera Eeal and
round the shores of Lake Titicaca to Puno, where a
junction will be effected with the Central Peruvian
system.
On the eastern slope of the Cordillera by far the
most important place, although not the present capital,
is the famous city of Nuestra Senora de la Paz (" Our
Lady of Peace "), which was so named by its founder,
Alonzo de Mendoza towards the middle of the sixteenth
century, but was re-named La Paz dc Ayacucho (" The
Peace of Ayacucho"), after the decisive battle of Ayacucho,
which was to secure peace to the country by the
expulsion of the Spaniards.
La Paz stands 12,470 feet above the sea, under the
shadow of Illimani, at the source of a stream which flows
to the Beni >through the cleft in the Cordillera Eeal, by
which Lake Titicaca formerly communicated with the
Amazon fluvial system. It is proposed again to pierce
the narrow sill at the head of the gorge now separating
the two Ijasins, for the purpose of bringing the city into
BOLIVIA
2H1
direct connection with the projected Oruro-Puno railway,
and thus giving it access by the Chilian and Peruvian
main lines to the Pacific at Antofagasta and Mollendo.
But these projects await the establishment of a govern-
ment strong enough to attract the capital needed for
their execution.
Sorata, at the head of the Eio Sorata, one of the
numerous auriferous ahluents of the Beni which take
LA PAZ DE AYACUCHO.
their rise on the eastern slope of the Cordillera between
Illimani and Illampu, is at present an attractive health
resort, much frequented by the citizens of La Paz. But
the name is still remembered in connection with one of
the most tragic incidents that took place during the
widespread revolt of the Indians against their Spanish
oppressors in the latter half of the eighteenth century.
A large number of whites from the surrounding districts
had taken refuge in Sorata, where they hoped to hold
262 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
out till relieved by the forces engaged in stamping out
the revolt. But the insurgents, instead of coming to
close quarters, adopted the novel device of constructing
a large reservoir above the town and then removing the
dam, with the result that the whole place, with its over-
crowded streets and houses, was swept away in a deluge
of slush and water.
On the extremely fertile and salubrious plateau
watered by the head-streams of the Eio Grande is^
situated the large city of Cochabamba, which gives its
name to the Cochabamba range. It is the chief agri-
cultural and industrial centre in Bolivia, and one-fourth
of the whole trade of the country is concentrated in this
flourishing district. The chief industries are cotton and
woollen spinning, tanning, brewing, soap and starch
works, while the rich soil yields heavy crops of wheat
and other cereals.
Beyond the Cochabamba range the entrance to the
plains is guarded by the outpost of Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, a name familiar to all travellers and explorers in
those low-lying borderlands between the Brazilian and
Andean highlands. Thanks to the navigable waters of
the neighbouring Eio Mamore, and the well-known tracks
radiating in all directions over the land, Santa Cruz has
long been the headquarters of the exploring expeditions,
which have happily succeeded the former raiding in-
cursions into the Chiquitos territory, Paraguay, and the
West Brazilian wilds.
On the uplands drained by the head-streams of the
Pilcomayo stand the renowned but now decayed cities of
Potosi and Sucre, the latter since 1894 capital of the
republic Potosi, whose mining operations at one time
controlled the money markets of the world, was in the
seventeenth century the largest city in the whole of
BOLIVIA 263
America, with a somewhat fluctuating population of
from 100,000 to 160,000. Thus was, at least, for a
time, jus tilled the proud title of Villa Imi^erial bestowed
upon it by its founders in 1545. Its better known
name is taken from the lofty Cerro de Potosi (15,400
feet), from which it derived its fame and prosperity, and
which has been described as a " silver " peak.
But the almost incredibly rich argentiferous lodes,
pierced in all directions by deep-sunk shafts and lateral
galleries, could not last for ever, especially after most
of the 5000 subterranean passages had subsided when
the lowest pits became flooded with water. Some of
the mines are, no doubt, still worked, but their yearly
output of about £150,000 is scarcely one-seventh
of their former yield. This must have averaged con-
siderably over £1,000,000 for the 300 years, which,
according to some estimates, yielded a total sum of
about £340,000,000.
Standing at the tremendous altitude of 13,325 feet
above the sea, within 2000 feet of the summit of the
Cerro, Potosi enjoys the unenviable distinction of being
absolutely the highest abode of man in the southern
continent. It lies, in fact, several hundred feet above
the strictly inhabitable zone, in a region where the
atmosphere is so rarefied that most of the children either
die soon after birth, or else never acquire the faculties of
sight and hearing. So greatly does the mortality exceed
the birth-rate that tlie population can be maintained
only by a constant inflow of adults attracted to the few
mines still kept open. When the last of these is closed,
Potosi, with its sumptuous monuments, already disused
mint, and aqueducts far beyond the requirements of its
present inhabitants, will be entirely deserted, and to
future generations its extensive ruins may prove as great
264 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
a wonder as those of Tiahuanaco now do to the few way-
farers wandering over the scarcely inhabitable southern
shores of Titicaca.
At a short distance to the north-east of Potosi, but at
a much lower elevation (8860), Sucre, the present ephe-
meral capital of the republic, occupies a pleasant and
healthy position close to the Cachamayo head-stream of
the Pilcomayo. It stands on the site of the old Indian
settlement of Chuquisaca {Chuquicliaca), that is, the
" Golden Bridge," now re-named Sucre, in honour of the
general who gained the great victory of Ayacucho over
the last of the royalists. In the halcyon days of the
mining industry, when Potosi was minting the currency
of half the civilised world, Sucre served as a health
resort for its sickly inhabitants. At present it owes its
prosperity, not to the mineral but to the vegetable
kingdom, the surrounding district being one of the most
fertile in the State. A curious local industry is the
preparation of argillaceous bon-bons, which are sucked
like liquorice-sticks, without any injurious effects, if used
in moderation. All over these uplands " clay dumplings
and potatoes " are a favourite dish, and we know that
other edible earths are largely consumed by many of the
aborigines both in South America and in Africa, but not
everywhere with impunity.
On a tributary of the Berraejo, which takes its rise
within the Bolivian frontier, stands the outpost of Tarija,
a place which in recent years has acquired some notoriety
as a convenient refuge of " politicians out of ofl&ce," and
other turbulent citizens of the neighbouring Argentine
republic. The district is more favourably noted for its
excellent soil, which yields magnificent crops of cereals,
vegetables, and fruits of all kinds. As on the Cocha-
bamba plateau, the herbage is extremely nutritious, so
BOLIVIA 265
that in the whole of this region there is a great future
for the stock-breeding industry.
Eesources — Minerals — Vegetable Products —
Despite the loss of the rich mineral districts of the
Pacific slope, wirested from her by Chile, Bolivia still
possesses in the Huachaca and Oruro mines some of the
most productive argentiferous lodes in the world. Here
the ores contain nominally from a tenth to a fifteenth
part, and exceptionally as much as one-half or even three-
quarters of pure metal. In 1896 nearly 1,500,000
pounds weight of silver were exported, and the output
will certainly increase with the development of railway
enterprise on the Central plateau.
Next in importance to silver are the tin beds, which
occur at short intervals all along the east side of the
same region, and thence southwards nearly to the
Argentine and Chilian frontiers. These beds are found
especially in the trachitic porphyries and other plutonic
rocks, which crop out through the older schists, and in
some places the ores consist of more or less pure metal.
In 1892 the total yield of 8670 tons was valued
at £512,000. Copper also abounds, especially in the
La Paz district, where the famous Corocoro and Chacarilla
mines contain ores with as much as 85 per cent of pure
metal. In the same year, 1892, the value of the copper
output exceeded £90,000.
Gold is widely diffused, but nowhere in large quanti-
ties, except perhaps in some of the imperfectly surveyed
auriferous reefs in the province of Santa Cruz. Gold
quartz veins of surpassing richness are also said to occur
on a branch of the Eio Baure or Blanco, which flows
en1;irely through Bolivian territory to the left bank of
266 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the Gruapore. Salt abounds in the southern provinces,
but coal and iron appear to be rare, althougli carboni-
ferous beds are reported in the Titicaca basin. Platinum,
antimony, bismuth, and arsenic also figure amongst the
minerals, the total annual yield of which averages about
£2,500,000.
On the uplands wheat, barley, and other cereals of
good quality are raised, but in quantities insufficient to
supply the local demand. The same remark applies to
the produce of the lower and warmer zones, which are
well suited for the cultivation of maize, cotton, tobacco,
coca, coffee, sugar, and even wine. But the development
of the agricultural industry is everywhere retarded by
the lack of good communications.
Of forest products the most important have hitherto
been chinchona and rubber. The latter, especially since
about the year 1880, has engaged the attention of
foreign speculators to the neglect of almost all other
economic growths. In Bolivia the rubber-yielding plant
is the Siphonia {S. elastica), of which there are three
distinct varieties growing to a height of 50 or 60 feet.
In recent years the enterprising traders engaged in this
industry have indirectly helped more than any other
class to open up the country, to survey its navigable
waters and promote geographical research in all directions.
Communications
But all real progress is arrested by the lack of good
communications in almost every part of the republic.
In the Yungas zone the routes traversing the woodlands
and more open pampas are merely bridle-paths, while the
numerous navigable affluents of the Madeira are frequented
only by the canoes of the Mojos and other aborigines.
BOLIVIA 267
Even the highways between such important places as
Cochabamba and Sucre are in the same wretched state as
they were some forty years ago, when Don Eafael
Bustillo described Bolivia as a region seated upon the
masses of silver of the double Andean range, a territory
fertile beyond measure, where the treasures of the most
opposite climates were grouped together, " but perishing
from consumption for want of means of communication,
which might carry to the markets of the world her valu-
able productions, and stimulate her sons to labour and
industry."
Administration
By the present constitution, which dates only from
October 1880, the executive is vested in a President
elected by popular vote for four years, and not eligible
for re-election. The legislative functions are entrusted to
a Congress of eighteen Senators and sixty-four Deputies,
both elected by the suffrage of all adults who can read and
write, the former for six the latter for four years. The
President is assisted by two Vice-Presidents and a
Cabinet of five ministers.
Although the Eoman Catholic is the State religion,
a measure of tolerance is extended to other forms of
worship, at least in those districts where it would be
difficult to enforce conformity.
Primary instruction is free and in principle obliga-
tory. Yet in 1896 there were only 506 primary schools
attended by less than 33,000 pupils, besides 10 secondary
schools and colleges with 2140 scholars. On the other
hand, there are no less than six " universities," generally
with three faculties (law, medicine, and divinity), and a
collective attendance of 1900 students. For the settled
Indian communities there are 70 schools conducted by
268 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
the padres, besides 34 mission stations with 160 schools
supported partly by the State, partly by the provinces.
It is pleasant to read that in the Mojos missions " all
who have done service in the churches as sacristans and
choristers are able to write ; they also can read music,
for which they use the ordinary five-line system. There
are small schools in all the principal Indian villages, in
which reading, writing, and Catholic prayers are taught
in the Castilian language ; and I was rather surprised
to see the amount of rudimentary knowledge that is
drilled into the Indians, who as a race are not at all
deficient in natural intellect." ^
For the administration of justice there are a Supreme
Court in the capital, eight district courts, and the courts
of the local magistrates.
Besides a regular force of 1500 men there is a
national guard, in which all citizens are liable to serve.
According to the conscription law of 1892 military
service is compulsory in the standing army, the reserve
and extraordinary" reserve.
1 Mathews, p. 127.
To {woe poffe 268.
GO
'SjupiA,
BOLIVIA
CHAPTEE IX
CHILI
Extent — Boundary Questions — Area — Population — Physical Features —
The Central Plain — The "Western Cordillera — The Cordillera de los
Andes — Mercedario, Aconcagua, Tupungato — The Southern Andes —
Igneous and Glacial Phenomena — The Chilian Archipelagoes —
Magellan Strait — Tierra del Fuego — King Charles South Land — Mas
a Fuera ; Juan Fernandez — Hydrography — The Chilian Coast Streams
— Lakes — Climate — Flora — Fauna — Inhabitants — The Araucauians —
The Fuegians — Yahgans and Alacalufs — The Chilians — Topography —
Pi,ail\vay Enterprise — Natural Resources- — Agricultural and Mineral
Wealth — Land Tenure — Emigration — Administration.
Extent — Boundary Questions — Area — Population
Chili or Chile, which by a curious concideuce has in
Quichuan the same meaniug as the English word chilly,
was the name given by the Incas to the coast region
stretching for an unknown distance southwards beyond
the river Maule, — southern boundary of their empire. At
present the same term, expanding with the northern and
southern expansion of the Chilian State since the estab-
lishment of its independence in 1818, covers the whole
of the Pacific seaboard between 20° and 55° S. lat., that
is to say, from the Peruvian frontier nearly to the ex-
tremity of Tierra del Fuego. But it extends scarcely
anywhere much more than 100 miles inland, so that
270 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
with a mean breadth of perhaps not more than 70
miles the total length falls little short of 3000 miles.
Such an extraordinary conformation, for which no parallel
can elsewhere be found, would be impossible in the case
of a completely land-locked State, but is an element, not
of weakness but of strength, for Chili, which, thanks to
the vast development of its coast-line, has easily acquired
the command of the neighbouring seas, and thus become
one of the most vigorous and aggressive powers in the
Xew World.
Landwards Chili is conterminous only with Peru and
Bolivia, where the frontiers have already been described,
and with Argentina, where the frontiers, badly defined
by more than one convention, are still a subject of litiga-
tion at several points. By a mutual agreement the
whole question was referred for arbitration in 1898 to
Queen Victoria, whose decision is still pending.
As soon as the two States began to extend their sway
towards the extremity of the Continent, a clash of
interests became inevitable in the hitherto unoccupied
regions of Patagonia and Fuegia. By the convention of
1881, the crest of the Andes, regarded as the divide
between the Atlantic and Pacific basins, was taken as
the political divide between the two States from their
first point of contact as far as 52° S. lat. Then the
line w"as made to coincide with the same parallel as far
as 70° W. long., from which point it was deflected
slightly to the south so as to strike Cape Dungeness on
the north side of the Atlantic entrance to Magellan
Strait. In Fuegia the parting-line followed the meridian
of 68° 34' from Cape Espiritu Santo to Beagle Channel,
all the islands south of which were assigned to Chili.
Thus Cape Horn fell to Chili, and Staten Island to
Argentina, while Magellan Strait was declared neutral
CHILI 271
and free to all flags, and all this part of the convention
holds good for both contracting parties.
Not so the mainland, where it was soon discovered
that at several points the crest of the Andes in no way
coincided with the water-parting between the two oceans.
Thus the exploration of the Eio Aysen carried out by
Dr. Steffan and others in 1897 showed that, like other
recently surveyed Pacific Coast streams, this river " has
its sources far to the east of the principal chain of the
Andes, its basin stretching over the comparatively level
country traversed by the eastern sub-Andean ridges."^
Here the water-parting "seems to run, in the north,
between the Aysen and Lakes Fontana and La Plata," and
in the south at a considerable distance beyond the
farthest point reached by the expedition on the southern
arm of the Aysen, named by Dr. Steffen and his com-
panions Eio Simpson " (ib.). On the other hand, the
divide in some districts approaches so near to the
Pacific that wei^e it followed the Patagonian part of
Chili would be cut into a number of practically isolated
sections. To remedy this, another convention made in
1893 took as the political divide the water-parting in
the main chain of the Andes, so that the frontier,
instead of coinciding with the so-called continental
divide, would have to cross the rivers flowing from the
easternmost crests of the main Andean range. But when
the new boundary came to be laid down fresh difticulties
firose, which are now the subjects of arbitration.
Whatever may be the decision of the arbiter, it can
affect only to a small extent the actual area of Chili,
which, including all the territory wrested by the war of
1879-81 from Peru and Bolivia, falls just short of
294,000 square miles, with a population of perhaps
^ Geogr. Jour. February 1898, p. 184.
272
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
2,800,000, although by the defective census of 1895
returned at only 2,712,000, distributed as under over
the twenty-three provinces and single territory of the
republic : —
Provinces.
Area
in Sq. Miles.
Population.
Tacna 8,685
24,160
Tarapaca
19,300
89,751
Antofagasta
60,968
44,085
Atacama
43,180
59,712
Coquimbo
12,950
160,898
Aconcagua
5,840
113,165
Valparaiso .
1,637
220,756
Santiago
5,223
415,636
O'Higgins
2,524
85,277
Colchagua
3,795
157,566
Cnrico .
2,913
103,242
Talca .
3,678
128,961
Linares
3,588
101,858
Maule .
2,933
119,791
Nuble .
3,556
152,935
Concepcion
3,535
188,190
Bio-Bio
. 4,158
101,768
Malleco
2,856
98,032
Cautin .
3,126
78,221
Arauco .
4,248
59,237
Valdivia
8,315
60,687
Llanquihue
. 7,823
78,315
Chiloe .
3,995
77,750
Magallanes (Ter.) ■
. 75,292
5,170
Total
293,970
2,712,145
At present (1900) the actual population still falls
short of 3,000,000, including about 50,000 full-blood
Indians, chiefly Araucanians, and nearly 100,000 for-
eigners. As shown by the subjoined table, contingents
from various parts of the civilised world have in recent
years been attracted in considerable numbers to the
Chilian republic by the inducements held out to per-
manent settlers on the land, although trade and the
CHILI
273
industries are far from being as flourishing as would
appear from ofdcial representations : —
Peruvians
Bolivians
Argentines
Germans .
English .
French .
Italians .
40,000
16,000
10,000
8,000
6,000
5,000
5,000
Spaniards
Swiss
Chinese .
Americans
Australians
Scandinavians
Total
3,000
2,000
2,000
1,000
750
500
99,250
Physical Features — The Central Plain
AVitiiin the present Chilian domain is included the
whole of that section of the Andes which is disposed in
the direction from south to north, and comprises about
one-half of the entire length of the system, measured from
Fuegia to the Atrato. Thus Arica, where tlie system
begins to bend round to the north-west, and where the
Chilian section terminates, lies under 19° S. lat., that is
to say, allowing for the curvature of the northern section,
stands about midway between Magellan Strait (55° S.)
and the Gulf of Darien (9° N.).
On an ordinary map of the southern continent the
narrow Chilian half of the system looks like a mere
strip of coast-lands traversed by a single mountain range,
so that it is difficult at first sight to understand that
here also the double formation — Coast Kange and Andes
proper, with the intervening plateau and cross-ridges
— is maintained, though not throughout the entire
length of 3000 miles, between Peru and Fuegia. But
in Chili proper, apart from the territory lately wrested
from Bolivia, the outer Cordillera almost disappears at
both ends, in the north by erosion or possible subsidence,
in the south by actual submersion beneath the waters of
the Pacific, though even here it is still represented by
VOL. I T
274 COMPENDIUxM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the insular chains fringing the coast from Chiloe to
South Fuegia.
But in the central region the outer range stands out
conspicuously, especially when viewed from the sea, and
maintains a considerable elevation for about 700 miles
between 30° and 40° S. lat. Here is develojaed the
great central valley of Chili proper, which is enclosed
between the outer and inner ranges, and in and about
which, as on the corresponding Alta Planicie of Bolivia,
are situated the capital, Santiago, with its flourishing
seaport, Valparaiso, and most of the large centres of
population.
The Western Cordillera
In the old Bolivian provinces, where the Western
Cordillera forms the divide between the Pacific and the
closed Titicaca-Aullagas Ijasin, the range is surmounted
or flanked by several snowy summits of igneous oiigin
and of great altitude. Such are Tacora (19,800 feet),
source of the Maure, which flows to the Desaguadero ;
Chipicani (20,000 ?), dominating tlie Hucdlillas Pass,
which is itself nearly 14,000 feet high; Pomarape
(20,500), which still emits smoke; Parinacota (20,950)
and Hucdlatiri (19,720), near Lake Chungarra. Farther
south the Western Cordillera, whose loftiest peaks,
Yahricoya and Tata Yaetura, scarcely fall below 17,000
feet, develops east of Iquique a table-like fijrmation, and
is consequently locally known as La Mesa.
In the Atacama region, a little farther south, this
formation breaks into a number of relatively low ridges,
mostly running north and south, rising above 10,000 feet
in the Caracoles ("shell") heights, but falling to less
than 5000 feet on Jllount Trigo on the coast, about 25°
S. lat. Beyond this point the western system can no
CHILI 275
longer be distinctly followed till it again rises to a height
of 6000 or 7000 feet in the ridge west of Chacahiico
between Valparaiso and Santiago. This ridge, cul-
minating in Mount Colligiiai (7320 feet), south-east of
Valparaiso, is pierced by a number of easy passes, which
represent the gorges through which the lacustrine waters
formerly flooding the central Chilian plain were dis-
charged westwards to the Pacific. In this respect the
southern depression presents a striking contrast to the
Titicaca basin, which, as already seen, sent its overflow
eastwards to the Atlantic.
Farther south the coast system decreases continually
in height through the Nahuelhuta range (5000 feet) in
the Araucanian territory to the Cordillera Eelada and
other low ridges in the province of Valdivia, all of which
fall below 3000 feet. It was in this region that Darwin
and some other observers were led to infer a general
upheaval of the seaboard from the terrace formations
resembling old marine beaches, and the beds of marine
shells, all now standing at considerable elevations above
the present sea-level. But the point has been contested,
and while some attribute the terraces at the issue of old
river valleys to the erosive action of running waters,
others suggest that the shell-heaps may be mere kitchen-
middens accumulated by the al)origines in a region which
is now known to have been inhabited since Pleistocene
times. In Fuegia and on the Atlantic side (Brazil and
Argentina) such middens exist in great numbers, and are
often of prodigious size. One explored by Dr. Lovisato
in Elizabeth Island, although greatly eroded by the surf, is
still nearly a mile long, and presents many indications of
vast antiquity. In any case the upheaval can scarcely
have been so general as formerly supposed, because
signs of the opposite phenomenon of sul)sidence have
276 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
been observed in one of the neighbouring Chonos
Islands.
Beyond the province of Valdivia the Coast Eange
disappears altogether, or perhaps it would be more correct
to say, here breaks into a long chain of islands, which,
beginning with Chiloe, skirt the seaboard to the extremity
of the Continent, and are continued in a graceful curve
through the South Fuegian groups round to Staten
Island, where the Andean lands appear to terminate.
Corresponding with the break up or subsidence of the
Western Cordiller^ is the continuous southward incline
of the great Chilian central valley down to sea level.
Contracting here and there to mere gorges or level glens,
the central plains develop in Valdivia a series of lacustrine
basins — Galafquen, Huanche, Banco, Llanquilhue —
through which they merge at last in the inner waters,
fjords, sounds, and inlets flowing between the mainland
and the line of outer archipelagoes. Some of these
channels penetrate far inland, others expand into wide
passages, such as the G-ulfs of Corcovado and Penas,
Nelson and Magellan Straits, and Beagle Channel, by
which the long chain of fringing islands is disposed in
a number of more or less distinct insular groups.
The Cordillera de los Andes
Behind and above all these outer formations — coast
ranges, lateral ridges, central plains, archipelagoes, and
waterways — the Cordillera de los Andes, properly so
called, forms a magnificent background, running without
interruption for some 3000 miles along the eastern
frontier, with numerous peaks towering many thousand
feet above the snow -line, and in mighty Aconcagua
possibly reaching the culminiiting point of the New
CHILI 277
World. But, like the central valley and the coast range,
the great Cordillera also falls generally in the direction
of the south. A good sectional map of the whole sys-
tem shows that, after maintaining a mean altitude of
about 15,000 feet in the north, where Ccpiarpo, Bonete,
Mercedario, Aconcagua, Twpungato, and some other peaks
rise to and above 20,000 feet between the parallels of
27° and 34° S. ; the main axis has in the south an
average height of scarcely more than 8000 feet, with
very few peaks rising above 10,000 or 11,000 feet.
The Cordillera, interrupted by Magellan Strait in the
wedge-shaped peninsula terminating with Cape Froward
at the extremity of the Continent, reappears in the main
island of Fuegia, where Mounts Sarmiento (6910 feet),
Darwin (6800) and the Three Brothers (1640), all lying
north of Beagle Channel, seem undoubtedly to belong to
the Andean system proper.
In the Chilian section of the system both igneous and
glacial phenomena prevail to a far greater extent than in
Bolivia or Peru. Most of the cones, however, are either
quiescent or quite extinct, while some of the loftiest,
including both Aconcagua and Tupungato, have lost all
traces of their former craters. In the northern section,
between the Bolivian frontier and Coquimbo, that is, along
the eastern edge of the Atacama region, are concentrated
over thirty extinct or dormant volcanoes, such as Lhd-
layacu (21,650 ?), Antofalla (20,900), Socompa (19,600),
Azupe de Gopiapo (19,700) and others exceeding 17,000
feet. South of Copiapo the main range develops a
plateau formation, which is crossed by relatively low
passes, such as the Portezuelo de Come Cahallos (14,530
feet), leading to the mining district of Famatina in
Argentina. In summer the pa/rnpas, as the level open
tracts are locally called, afford easy communication between
278 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
the interior of the Continent and the seaboard. But in
winter they are difficult and even dangerous to cross,
owing to the prevailing high gales, accompanied by
intense cold, these exposed uplands offering scarcely any
shelter to the wayfarer.
Mercedario — Aconcagua — Tupungato
Beyond the transverse Sierra de Dona Ana, which
terminates near the coast in the Pajonal group (6720
feet), the main range is again crossed by the still lower
Aznfre Pass (11,970 feet) at a point where it approaches
within 60 or 70 miles of the Pacific. But south of this
break the whole system, here deflected to south by east,
receives its greatest lateral and vertical expansion between
the parallels of 31° and 34' S. in the provinces of
Valparaiso and Santiago. Here are developed several
elevated lateral ridges which occupy a considerable space
Ijoth in Central Chili and in the neighbouring Argentine
provinces of San Juan and Mendoza, and are surmounted
by some of the loftiest peaks and cones in the New^
World. Such are the Gerro del Mercedario, which has
not yet been ascended, but has an estimated height
of 22,320 feet; Aconcagua (23,080), and Tupungato
(22,000), both of which were for the first time scaled by
Mr. S. M. Vines of the FitzGerald expedition in 1897.
These giants are long-extinct volcanoes, although now
showing no trace of their terminal craters, which stood
one or more thousand feet above the present summits.
By his ascent of Aconcagua, which lies about midway
between its two rivals — 40 or 50 miles south of
Mercedario and north-west of Tupungato, 70 north-east
of Santiago and nearly 100 from the Pacific — Mr. Vines
may claim to have reached the greatest height yet
CHILI 279
attained, with certainty, by any human being. At such
an altitude protracted existence is impossible, and even
4000 feet lower down the explorers suffered intensely
from the exhausting effects of the puna, as the saroche or
'•' mountain sickness " is locally called. " I remember,"
says Mr. Vines, " the first morning after my arrival at this
high camp [19,000 feet], Mr. FitzGerald set to work to
do the cooking, which consisted of making some coffee —
we did not want anything more. He told me to go and
get the water for the coffee ; this consisted of taking a
biscuit-tin and filling it with snow and ice, exactly 10
yards distant from where I stood, near the fire. The
guy-ropes of the tent stood in my way. I stepped over
one of them with one foot and waited, and then I dragged
the other leg after the first, and so on, until I reached
the spot. I was ten minutes gone, and when 1 got back
I had just enough snow and ice to wet the bottom of the
kettle." '
Aconcagua, formerly assumed to stand in or on the
border of Chili, is now- included in Argentina, in accord-
ance with the latest agreements between the Argentine
and Chilian Conmiissioners, F. P. Moreno and Barras
Arana. Mr. FitzGerald, who approached it from the
east (Mendoza) side, describes the High Andes as here
running north and south in three great parallel ranges.
But there are only two, the Tigj^e in the east, and in
the west the chain of the water-parting, to which Acon-
cagua l)elongs, but which lies some four miles farther
west. Aconcagua is thus shown to stand well within
the Argentine frontier. Altliough visilde on a clear
day from the Pacific, it sends the whole of its
drainage in the direction of the Atlantic, some 700
miles away, so that from the hydrographic standpoint
^ li. Gcogr. Jour., November 1898, p. 487. ,
ACONCAGUA.
CHILI 281
the " monarch of the Andes " clearly forms part uf the
Argentine republic. From its summit a superb view is
commanded of Mercedario, away to the north, and south-
wards of the main range as far as Tupungato, with the
intervening Juncal (20,500 feet), Navarro (19,500 feet)
and Pollera (19,000 feet), peaks and glaciers clearly
marking the boundary line between the two States.
A few miles north of Aconcagua the main range is
crossed by the Los Patos Pass (11,700 feet), which is
associated with perhaps the most memorable event in
the War of Independence. Although little used because
of its extremely rugged character, it was surmounted in
1817 by the Argentine General San Martin with his
whole army, who was thus enabled to surprise the
royalists awaiting him at the Cumhre Pass, some miles
farther south. " He took five thousand men, with
artillery, material for making bridges, and provisions,
safely across that pass, fought the battle of Ghacahuco
within three days afterwards, and entered the capital of
Chili within five days " ^ — an exploit comparable to the
passage of the Alps by Hannibal.
The above mentioned Cumbre, which lies about
midway between Aconcagua and Juncal, is destined to
become as famous in the future as Los Patos has been in
the past. Falling to 12,795 feet above sea-level, and
presenting less difficulties than any other depression in
this section of the main range, it has been chosen as
the most suitable point through which to carry the
now nearly completed Argento-Chilian trans-continental
railway. On the east side the line has already pene-
trated beyond Mendoza to Punta de las Vacas, 7858 feet
above the sea, while the Chilian section has reached the
Salto del Soldado, nearly twenty miles beyond Santa
1 Sii' C. Markham, Gcoffi: Jour., Novembei- 1898, p. 493.
282 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
Eosa de los Andes. Between these two terminal stations
the distance is only 44 miles, and althougli this gap
naturally presents the most formidable difficulties, in-
cluding a long tunnel under the Cumbre Pass, hopes are
entertained that this trans-Andean line will be finished
before the close of the nineteenth century.
At Tupungato the Andean system contracts to about
15 miles on the Argentine side, but still maintains a
consideral)le breadth in Chili, where range after range of
lofty lateral ridges occupy the whole space of 45 miles
between Santiago and the frontier. On the maps these
parallel ridges are not figured, and in fact a vast amount
of topographical work has still to be done before carto-
graphists will be able to give an approximately correct
picture of the Chilian Andes. " Hundreds and hundreds
of miles of these mountains are unknown. Many lofty
peaks, said to be over 20,000 feet in height, have never
been measured ; they have never been visited, have never
been approached by any one who was capable of describ-
ing them." ^ From Tupungato the FitzGerald party
sighted a great burning mountain, of which nothing
was known till quite recently. " On arriving at the
top of the ridge a volcano was seen about 20 miles
to the south-west in great activity. ... It had the
appearance of a great ridge, about 13,000 feet in heiglit,
running towards the north, when its height gradually
dwindled. A great fissure appeared in the middle of this
ridge, from which the smoke poured forth in dark brown
volumes," with a " strong, sulphurous, burning smell." ~
This is the Mount Bravarcl of the Argento- Chilian
surveyors, who have so named it in memory of the
Frencli geologist who lost his life during the earthquake
of Mendoza in 1861. But they speak of it, not as a
1 Sir C. JMurklumi, loc. cit. p. 493. - lb. \>. 484.
CHILI
283
very active, but rather as " a nearly extinct vf)lcauo "
(Moreno).
The Southern Andes — Igneous and Glacial Phenomena
South of Tupuugato the system still maintains a great
elevation, and here follows a succession of volcanoes,
MOUXT TIIONAIIOII.
mostly extinct or long quiescent, such as Smi Jose de
Maipu (17,644 feet); f^an Fernando; Tinguiririca
(14,700); Peteroa (11,925), reported to have shown
signs of life in 1762 and again in 1837; Descahezado
(12,760); Las Yeguas (11,350); Campanario (11,000),
and jYevado de Longavi (10,520), all apparently extinct.
284 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Then follow the Nevada de Chilian (10,000), Antuco
(9000), Villarica (9320), and Osorno (7500), all of
which still occasionally emit vapours, while the four-
peaked Chilian was in a state of constant eruption, dis-
charging lavas and scoriae, during the years 1861-65.
On the other hand, the Tronador, or " Thunderer" (9790),
near the southern extremity of Chili proper, is so named,
not from its underground disturbances, hut from the
avalanches continually crashing down its slopes.
It would thus appear that throughout the whole of
the Chilian system igneous activity is dying out, while
glacial phenomena persist, or even show symptoms of
further expansion. Many of the cones have lost their
terminal craters, or else these vents have become choked
with frozen masses. Extensive glaciers descend the
flanks not only of the giants in the lower northern lati-
tudes, but also of the smaller groups in the extreme
south, where less elevation is compensated by higher
latitude and by a greater abundance of atmospheric
moisture, everywhere a necessary condition of glaciation.
The flanks of the Nevado de Chilian are furrowed by
several frozen streams, which have never melted even
during the fiercest igneous explosions, and Giissfeld, one
of the great pioneers of Chilian exploration, discovered
in the far south a wonderful glacier descending down to
the region of arable lands. At present the head of the
stream to which it gives rise stands 6260 feet above
sea-level ; but towards the middle of the nineteenth
century it reached as low as 5840 feet, so that the
glacier has retreated 420 feet in fifty years. But in the
Patagonian region some of the frozen rivers still descend,
as in Greenland, to the level of the sea, and sliow no in-
dications of shrinkage.
CHILI 285
The Chilian Archipelagoes
The long chain of southern archipelagoes begins about
42° S. lat. with the large island of Chiloe, whose very
name — Chili hue, " Part of Chili " — shows that it was
regarded even by the natives as a continuation of the
mainland. It is in fact nothing more than a detached
section of the coast range running at a mean height of
about 2000 feet for 80 miles in the direction of the
south. As in the neighbouring province of Valdivia, the
steeper escarpments face seawards, while the land slopes
gently eastwards to the gulfs of Anciid and of Corcovado,
which are themselves to be regarded as a now submerged
southern prolongation of the great central plain of Chili.
These island-studded inland waters, flowing between
the great Andes and the archipelagoes, that is, the frag-
mentary coast range, are continued all the way to Fuegia,
without any interruption except at the narrow neck ot
the Taytao Peninsula, which geologically represents a
short section of the coast range still connected with the
mainland. Between Chiloe and Taytao lies the extensive
Chonos Archipelago, which comprises over a thousand
islands, rocks, and reefs separated from the Patagonian
mainland by the narrow Moraleda Channel. The southern
extremity of this channel is separated from the San
Estevan inlet of the Gulf of PeSias by the isthmus of
Ofqui connecting Taytao with the coast of Patagonia.
Here rises Mount San Valentin, which sends down two
glacial streams, one south to the San Estevan inlet, the
other west to Lake San Eafael, which communicates
through the Rio de los Tempanos north wax ds witli the
Moraleda Channel. On reaching the lake the western
glacier glides along the bottom at a depth of nearly 700
feet, and is then broken into fragments by the upward
286 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
thrust caused by the greater density of the lacustrine
waters. Thus is kept up a perpetual thunder, echoed
from cliff to cliff of the encircling hills, wliile the liberated
tevi2)anos (" icebergs ") drift away to the Moraleda
Channel.
Interrupted by the spacious Gulf of Pcnas, which
penetrates through a number of fjord -like formations,
such as Jesuit Sound, the Boca de Canales, the Aro-
•pazado Channel, and the Calen Inlet, far into the re-
cesses of the main Cordillera, the insular chain is con-
tinued farther on to the Strait of Magellan by the three
large islands of Wellington, Hanover, and Queen Adelaide,
each fringed by countless clusters of smaller groups. In
these southern latitudes the terminology is mainly
English, the first serious hydrographic surveys having
been carried out by the British Admiralty during the
early decades of the nineteenth century. Associated with
the work are the names of King and Fitzroy, who were
accompanied by the great naturalist Charles Darwin, and
conducted the memorable expedition of ten years (1826-
36), during which they completed the first systematic
survey of the Magellanic lands from Fuegia to Chiloe.
Wellington, about 40 miles south of the Taytao
Peninsula, still remains the largest of all the islands
north of Fuegia, although considerably reduced in size by
the later surveys of Serrano and the German Alhafross
expedition. Several tracts on the west side were found
to be distinct groups separated from the main island by
the Fallos Channel and other navigable waters. On the
east side fiows the winding Messier Channel, which, at
the English Narroios, contracts to a width of less than
400 feet, and in some places rushes with the speed of a
mill-race between high beetling cliffs. But, like all these
inland passages, the channel is very deep, and presents a
CHILI 287
navigable waterway 150 miles long between Wellington
and the rugged shores of Patagonia.
Here the mainland offers a constantly varying prospect,
" indented by numerous caves and several deep narrow
sounds running far into the recesses of the Cordillera.
In the intermediate channel crowds of islets, some rising
to the size of mountains, some mere rocks peeping above
the water, present an endless variety of form and outline.
But what gives to the scenery a unique character is the
wealth of vegetation that adorns this seemingly inclement
region. From the water's edge to a height estimated at
1400 feet the rugged slopes were covered with an un-
broken mantle of green trees and shrubs. Above that
height the bare declivities were clothed with snow, mottled
at first by projecting rocks, but evidently lying deep upon
the higher ridges. I can find no language to give any
impression of the marvellous variety of the scenes that
followed in quick succession against the bright blue back-
ground of a cloudless sky, and lit up by a northern sun
that illumined each new prospect as we advanced. At
times one might have fancied one's self on a great river
in the interior of a continent, while a few minutes later,
in the openings between the islands, the eye could range
over miles of water to the mysterious recesses of the
Cordillera, with occasional glimpses of snowy peaks at
least twice the heiccht of the summits near at hand." ^
Magellan Strait — Tierra del Fuego
South of Queen Adelaide Island, which presents the
same general aspect as the other Magellanic lands, the
conspicuous headland of Cape Pillar, at the northern
extremity of Desolation Island, marks the western
i J. Ball, op. cit. p. 222.
288 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
entrance of Magellan Strait. This famous inter-oceanic
passage, by which Fuegia is entirely severed from the
mainland, consists of two nearly equal branches disposed
respectively in the direction from north-west to south-
east and from north-east to south-west, with a total
length of 340 miles. The junction takes place about
midway between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, at the
GLACIER BAY, STRAITS OF MAGELLAN.
Cape Fro ward headland of the Brunsvnck Peninsula,
which is the southernmost point of the American
Continent.
At first siglit the Archipelago of Tierra del Fueejo ^
1 After long search had failed to discover any clear indications of
"tire," it was asked why Magellan should have called this region the
" Land of Fire. " It was not, however, named by him Tierra del Fuego, but
Tierra dc Humos, " Land of Smoke," and the change is said to have been
made by Charles V., with the remark that "there is no smoke without
fire." The "smokes," certainly seen by the great navigator curling up
on the plains, are supposed to have risen from bonfires kindled by the
natives to signal the portent of strange beings approaching in great ships.
CHILI 289
seems to present a chaos of insular masses, disposed
without order or system. But a closer inspection shows
that it comprises two distinct secondary groups — one,
on the Pacific side, representing the south-eastern con-
tinuation of the Chilian Coast Eange, the other, on the
Atlantic side, representing a southern continuation of
the whole of the mainland, that is, both the Great Andes
and the Patagoniau plains. Between the two groups
flows Beagle Channel, which, with its western extension,
Darioin Sound, penetrates through several passages round
Londonderry, Steivart, and some smaller islands to the
Pacific, but is cut off from the Magellanic waters by the
Brecknock Peninsula. This peninsula, although forming
continuous land with the Atlantic section, belongs geologi-
cally to the Pacific group, and falls into line with the
outer chain of islands which stretch from Cape Pillar
for over 400 miles round to Cape Horn. In this respect
Brecknock should be compared with Taytao farther north,
both being survivals from a time when all the insular
groups from Chiloe to Staten Island formed part of the
Southern Continent.
But the separation must have taken place at a very
remote period, and the different characters of the Pata-
goniau and Fuegian faunas and floras clearly show that
Magellan Strait is of great age. The oliservations made
by the Nordenskjold expeditions of 1895-97 make it
evident that the discrepancies in these respects are much
greater than had hitherto been supposed. Many animal
forms — reptiles, frogs, and numerous invertebrates —
occurring on the mainland are unknown in Fueffia, and
the "plant-forms of different families exhibit the same
sharp demarcation " ^ between the two zones. The Strait,
however, does not form a complete parting -line, for
^ Geogr. Jour., April 1898, p. 437.
VOL. I U
290 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGliAPHY AND TRAVEL
many eastern Patagonian forms occur also in Fuegia,
and although neither the puma nor the rhea has crossed
the channel a small lizard has been found as far south
as Kio G-rande (53° 50' S.), the most southerly spot where
reptiles have yet been discovered.
Southwards the Pacific section of Fuegia, comprising
the relatively large islands of Gordon, Hoste, Kavarin,
and Wollaston, besides several small clusters, forms an
irregular triangle with its base resting on Beagle Channel
and its apex terminating at Gape Horn, southernmost
point of the New World (60" S. lat.). North of the
Brecknock Peninsula the Pacific section is completed
by the dreary region wliich was aptly named Desola-
tion Land by Captain Cook, and was long supposed to
form a continuous mass extending from Cape Pillar to
GocJcburji Ghannel. But later surveys have decomposed
it into at least three distinct islands, and possibly more
may yet be discovered, all separated by very narrow but
deep channels, which flow between the Pacific and the
western branch of Magellan Strait. The northern
member of the group retains the name of Desolation,
and this is followed by Santa Inez, a name which,
pending further exploration, covers everything between
Desolation and Clarence Islands. When Mr. Ball passed
through he was shown one of the narrow sounds " which
have lately been ascertained to penetrate entirely through
what used to be considered a sinuie island." ^
King Charles South Land
Although comprising only four distinct islands —
King Gharles South Land, Dawson, Clarence, and Stcden —
Eastern Fuegia, as the Atlantic section is often called,
1 Geoiir. Jour., April 1898, p. 141.
CHILI 291
greatly exceeds the Pacific section in extent. In fact
the first-mentioned island, which occupies the whole of
the Atlantic side and extends right across the archipelago
from Ca-pe S. Diego to the Brecknock Peninsula, is alone
very much larger than all the other islands taken
together. Its former connection with the mainland is
clearly shown by a study of its contour lines, which
on the east follow the concave curvature of the Pata-
gonian seaboard, and on the west continue the convex
trend of the Great Andes round to the Three Brothers
at Cape S. Diego, over against Staten Island, at. the
south-east extremity of the Andean system.
Corresponding in its physical aspect with the general
character of the mainland, King Charles South Land
presents on the Atlantic side the same dreary steppe-like
formation as Eastern Patagonia, and on the south and
west sides the same rugged mountainous appearance as
the Great Cordillera. Here the Andean system is clearly
continued along the northern margin of Beagle Channel
by the Darivin range, above which rise several peaks
nearly if not quite 7000 feet high. Such are, going
eastwards, the twin - peaked Sarmiento (6910 feet), '
Mount Darivin (6800), and Mount Frangais (7000 ?),
near the Argentine frontier, beyond which the highest
summits are Mount Cornu (4335) and the Three Brothers
(1640), at the south-eastern extremity of King Charles
South Land.
Sarmiento, the " Matterhorn of the Puegian Alps,"
impresses the imagination with awe and wonder more
profoundly than many far more elevated heights. Seen
especially from the great bend of Magellan Strait, it
produces an extremely imposing effect, its steep slopes
and two jagged peaks filling the background at the head
of the spacious sound flowing between Clarence and
292 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPAVEL
Dawson Islands, and towering above the snowy crests
which flank both sides of the channel. Although igneous
formations abound in this southern section of the Pata-
gonian Andes, Sarmiento itself does not appear to be of
volcanic origin. " No volcanic rocks elsewhere in the
world can retain slopes so nearly approaching to the
vertical. It is, I believe, a portion of the original rock
skeleton that formed the axis of the Andean chain during
the long ages that preceded the great volcanic outbursts
that have covered over the framework of the western
side of South America." -^
King Charles South Land is divided by Dr. 0.
Nordenskjold of the Swedish expedition into three
distinct zones : (1) the just described southern highlands,
forest-clad on their lower slopes ; (2) the more level central
region, where the tops of the hills are alone covered with
timber ; and (3) the northern treeless zone. The two
northern zones are of Tertiary formation, covered with
Quaternary deposits identical with the ground moraine
of the old glacial region of North Europe.
Besides the groups of islands several peninsular forma-
tions, such as King William Land, Croker and Brunstuick
Peninsulas, are also regarded as forming part of the
Fuegian Archipelago. All these Magellanic lands, pro-
jecting from the Patagonian mainland southwards and
dividing, the strait into an eastern and a western branch,
belong to the same geological formations as the neigh-
bouring islands, and are nearly severed from the Continent
by deep inlets, such as Otivay Water, Sky ring Water, and
Obstruction Sound, all of which communicate by open or
intricate passages with the other inland Magellanic
waters. They now also belong politically to Chili, which
has established the centre of administration for the
1 J. Ball, op. cif. p. 24.5.
CHILI 293
Archipelago, not on any of the islands, but at PvMta
Arenas {Sandy Point) on the north side of Magellan
Strait, near the neck of Brunswick Peninsula. This site
has been chosen chiefly on account of the coal-fields which
have been discovered in the district, and which afford
proof that the Antarctic, like the Arctic regions, enjoyed
a warm climate in the Carboniferous epoch. Even in
Tertiary times the fossil plants and animals collected by
the Nordenskjold expedition of 1895-96 point to a some-
what higher temperature than the present. Later came
the glacial period, when an ice-sheet completely covered
the Archipelago, filling Magellan Strait, but nowhere
reaching the present Atlantic seaboard beyond the Gal-
legos estuary. At the close of the Glacial period Fuegia
stood some 200 feet lower than at present; but the
subsequent upheaval seems now to have ceased, or at
least to be progressing at a very slow rate.
Mas a Fuera — Juan Fernandez
To insular Chili also belong the already mentioned
Oceanic islets of San Felix and San Ambrosia, Mas a
Fuera and Juan Fernandez, as well as the more remote
Sala-y-Gomez and Faster Island, fully described in another
volume of the present series.^ San Ambrosio, culminating
with a peak 830 feet high, forms with San Felix and a
few scattered reefs a rocky archipelago 370 miles west
of Concepcion on the coast of Chili. The group is
uninhabited, and yields nothing but a little guano de-
posited by seals; but one of the rocks, 175 feet high, is
well known to English mariners, who have named it
Peterborough Cathedral from the curious resemblance it
bears to the facade of that edifice. The group was first
^ Australasia, vol. ii. p. 528 sq.
294 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
sighted in 1574 by Juan Fernandez, who in the same
year also discovered the much larger and more southern
archipelago which perpetuates his name. This group,
which faces the Gulf of Corcovado at a distance of about
350 miles, comprises the two islands of Mas a Tierra,
" Landward," and Mas a Fmra, " Outward," — that is,
seaward, nearly 100 miles farther west, with the islet
of Santa Clara more to the south.
Though not the largest, Mas a Fuera is by far the
highest member of the group, rising over 6000 feet
above the surrounding waters. But Mas a Tierra (3225
feet), also specially called J'lian Fernandez, is better
known to fame, thanks to its association with De Foe's
Fiohinson Crusoe. This was the island where Alexander
Selkirk led the solitary life described by himself. The
incident is now commemorated by a monument here
erected by the officers of the Challenger in 1875, when
she visited the spot on her cruise round the world. The
group is often visited by whalers and other vessels calling
for supplies, which are obtained from the inhabitants,
chiefly German colonists settled here in 1868. The
Archipelago has a total area of about 80 square miles —
Mas a Tierra, 38 ; Mas a Fuera, 34 ; Santa Clara, 8.
Hydrography — The Chilian Coast -Streams
Since the acquisition of the Atacama territory and
neighbouring districts, a considerable section of Nortli
Chili comes within the rainless zone, and here the coast-
streams present the same wady-like aspect as in Peru.
On the other hand, recent exploration has added greatly
to the number of perennial water-courses and glacial
streams which find their way to the Pacific in Southern
Chili and Patagonia. Such is the Corcovado, which was
CHILI 295
discovered by the Kriiger and Rethwich expedition of
1898, and flows from two glaciers near tlie coast to the
gulf of like name about 43" S. lat. It expands to a
width of 300 yards in its lower reaches, but higher up
is a mountain torrent subject to sudden freshets, and
obstructed by shoals and rapids. Such also are the
large Rio Las Heras, which flows to the Calen Inlet, and
was discovered by Moreno in 1897 ; the Trinidad and
others partly surveyed by the Argentine ship Golon-
drina in 1897; the TelcJto and Falena, both larger
and north of the already known Aysen and Haeinvlcs ;
the Puelo, Bodadahue, and Cisne, also north of the
Aysen. The Corcovado and the Bodadahue are entirely
comprised within the Chilian province of Llanquihue.
But the Palena, Cisne, Aysen, Las Heras, and others,
have their sources in the transversal depression of the
Tertiary tableland of Patagonia, and consequently belong
neither geologically nor topographically to the Andean
system, which in fact is pierced by them on their sea-
ward course to the Pacific. But the great majority
of the Chilian rivers farther north rise on the western
slopes, and in the central provinces acquire a consider-
able development by pursuing a winding course over the
great plain Iwfore forcing their way in deep rock}'
gorges through the Coast Eange to the Pacific. All
thus presenting much the same general character, the
special features of each may be conveniently tabulated as
under ^ : —
t> • T„„,ti, DiscliarL'e ill
Bueno Valdivia 7200 150 18,000
Bi-bio Concepcion 7150 220 16,000
Valdivia Valdivia 6000 82 1-3,250
^ From this table are necessarily excluded most of the more recentlj'
discovered southern rivers, detailed accounts of which are still awaited.
296
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
River
Province.
Basin,
sq. miles.
Length,
miles.
Discharge in
cubic feet
per second.
Aysen
Patagonia
6000 (?)
150 (?)
10,000 (?)
Maule
Maule
8000
140
10,000
Rapel
Colchagua
6600
134
9,220
Huemules
Patagonia
3000
100
9,000
MauUin
Llanquihue
1400
110
9,000
Itata
Nuble
4400
108
6,350
Corcovado
Patagonia
1500 (?)
80(?)
6,250 (?)
Cauten
Arauco
5000
200
6,200
(Imperial)
Token
VaUlivia
2100
134
3,520
Mataquito
Talca
2700
170
3,500
Maipo
Santiago
5250
155
960
Aconcagua
Valparaiso
3560
160
360
Chuapa
Aconcagua
3800
100
180
Limari
Coquimbo
2600
100
110
Coquimbo
Coquimbo
3500
90
70
Huasco
Atacama
4200
134
70
Copiapo
Atacama
4300
155
60(?)
Lakes
Formerly the whole of Chili appears to have been
strewn with lacustrine basins, traces of which may still
be detected even in the now arid Atacama region. But
in the northern and central districts nearly all have
disappeared, except the Laguna Negra, source of the Rio
Maipo in the province of Santiago. Farther south the
Gualletue lakelet in Arauco is followed by a continuous
chain of flooded basins, which are disposed along the
western foot of the Great Andes in the two southern
provinces of Valdivia and Llanquihue. Like the rivers,
of which they are feeders, these lakes generally increase
in volume southwards, while their great depth and
position under the slopes of the Cordillera show that
they owe their origin to the grinding action of the great
cflaciers which, during the Ice Age, advanced into the
CHILI 297
central plain much farther than at present. Such are,
in their order from north to south, Villarica, Calaiquen,
and Huanchue, which communicate with each other and
drain to the Eio Tolten ; Banco, Payehue, and Rujpanco,
sources of various head-streams of the Eio Bueno, which
has the largest drainage area and is the most copious
river in Chili ; lastly Llanquihue, largest of all these
lacustrine basins, and source of Eio Maullin, which,
relatively to the small extent of its catchment basin (only
1400 square miles), has the largest volume of all these
coast-streams (9000 cubic feet per second). Although
few systematic soundings have yet been carried out, all
the Chilian lakes are known to be extremely deep —
Laguna Negra 900 feet, and Llanquihue 360 close to
its rocky shores.
Climate
Although, excluding the newly annexed northern
districts. Chili lies entirely within the temperate zone,
its climate is everywhere profoundly modified by the
local conditions. The chief determining factors are the
general disposition of the land, disposed in the direction
of the meridian, and stretching across thirty degrees of
latitude ; the great central plain, confined between lofty
mountain ranges which largely control the direction of
the atmospheric movements ; and the vast development
of a seaboard, washed along its entire length by cool
Antarctic currents.
In general the temperature falls steadily while the
moisture increases southwards, so that a gradual transi-
tion takes place from the great heats and absolute aridity
of the northern lowland districts to the Arctic winters
and superabundant precipitation of the Magellanic lands.
Thus are explained the striking contrasts presented by
298 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the Nortlierii Andes, towering to heights of 18,000 or
20,000 feet, but forming relatively few glaciers and
often largely free from snow, owing to the lack of
humidity, and the Patagonian Cordillera falling below
12,000 feet, but wrapped in a perennial snowy mantle,
thanks to the excessive moisture of a region where on
the uplands the precipitation takes the form of snow,
and on the lowlands the yearly rainfall exceeds 100
inches.
The same contrasts are presented by the coast-streams,
such as the Copiapo of the Atacama desert and the
Patagonian Huemules, the former with a basin over 4000
square miles in extent, but for a great part of the year
sending not a drop of water to the Pacific, the latter
rolling down a continuous volume estimated at 9000
cubic feet per second, collected in a drainage area not
exceeding 3000 square miles.
Between these extremes lies Chili proper, which both
on the coast and in the interior is favoured with one of
the healthiest and most delightful climates in the world.
Here are naturally situated the great centres of popula-
tion, Santiago and Valparaiso, and the provinces named
from them, together with the conterminous districts, are
pre-eminently suited for permanent settlement by colonists
from the temperate European lands. It is to this
central region that are applicable those glowing descrip-
tions which often cause such surprise to travellers visiting
many less favoured districts. The descriptions, however,
are perhaps a little overdraw^n, as so often occurs in the
case of abrupt transitions from dreary arid wastes to
more cheerful verdant prospects. Even these central
provinces suffer at times from protracted droughts, and
indeed from a general deficiency of moisture, the mean
annual rainfall being much less than is commonly
CHILI 299
supposed, and nowhere rising to 20 inches in any
of the districts nqrth of the Maule basin (35°-36° S.
lat.), as shown in the subjoined table of temperatures and
humidity : —
S. Lat.
Jleaii
temp.
Summer
temp.
Wintei
temp.
Rainfall
in inches
Iquique .
Coquimbo
Valparaiso
20° 23'
29° 56'
33°
66°
59°
57-6°
75°
65°
63°
59°
53°
52-5°
0-5
1-6
13-5
Santiago .
33° 27'
55-6°
66°
45°
14-5
Talca
35° 36'
56-5°
70°
45°
19-7
Valdivia .
39° 49'
52-9°
61 -5°
45°
115
Ancud (Chiloe)
Punta Arenas
41° 46'
53° 10'
50-7°
43°
56-5°
51°
45-9°
34° 9°
134
22-5
In this table is clearly seen the influence of the cold
southern marine and aerial currents in lowering the
summer heats on the west side of the continent. " While
the winter temperatures are not very different from those
of places similarly situated on the west side of Europe
and Xorth Africa, those of summer are lower by 8° or
10° Fahr., and the mean of the year is lower by 6° or 7°
than that of places in the same latitude on the east side
of South America. It is also apparent that much of
what has been stated in works of authority as to the
climate of this region is altogether incorrect." ^
In the Magellanic lands the winter temperature at
sea -level is relatively high, seldom falling much below
freezing-point, while that of summer is correspondingly
lew, seldom rising above 60° Fahr. But in this region
great contrasts are presented between the Pacific and
Atlantic seaboards, the former being marked by ex-
cessive moisture, the latter by a moderate rainfall — 20°
to 25° inches — and high winds. These gales, which are
^ Ball, op. eit. p. 145. Here it is pointed out that the mean tempera-
ture of Santiago given by Grisebach as 67 "5° is less than 56°, and the
rainfall, stated to be o%'er 40 inches, does not exceed 13'5 inches.
300 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
felt as far seawards as the Falkland Islands, are due to
the cold atmospheric current rushing down from the
western highlands to fill the vacuum caused by the rare-
faction of the dry and warmer air on the eastern low-
lands. Hence also arise those williwaws, or sudden
squalls, which sweep down like avalanches from the
lateral gorges, and are so much dreaded by seafarers in
Magellan Strait and the neighbouring waters.
Flora
Perhaps the most striking feature of the Chilian flora
is the large number of absolutely indigenous forms,
showing that for long ages the Atacama desert in the
north and the Great Andes in the east have largely
acted as botanical divides between this region and the
rest of the Continent. So destitute of vegetation are the
arid northern districts, that for 600 miles between Ainca
and Copiapo the all-pervading hue of the landscape is a
dull mon(jtonous gray, scarcely anywhere relieved by a
single patch of verdure. There are doubtless indications
that parts of this region were formerly less arid than at
present. But this appears to have been laigely due to
the development of irrigation works under the Incas, and
the whole region must have long formed as effective a
barrier against the migration of species as the Cordillera
itself.
Amongst the numerous local forms are the Skytanthus,
a dwarfish shrub with yellow flowers, like those of the
jessamine, but with no allies elsewhere except two very
different species in tropical Brazil ; several varieties of
the cactus family, ranging as far south as Santiago, a
proof that, as above seen, this district enjoys a drier
climate than is currently assumed. Peculiar to the same
CHILI 301
region are tlie highly characteristic Vivianece and
FrancooAiecB, which are by many botanists regarded as
distinct natural orders elsewhere quite unknown. Of
the Francoacecc, stemless herbaceous growths yielding a
black dye and a drug with sedative properties, as many
as two genera and five species have been enumerated,
all exclusively from Chili. The Vivianece, also herbaceous
or undershrabs, are still more numerous, comprising four
genera and fifteen species, some of which appear to have
wandered into South Brazil from their Chilian home.
Altogether, of about two hundred genera belonging to the
temperate zone of South America, the great majority are
confined exclusively to this remarkable botanic kingdom
of Central Chili, and amongst them are several groups,
which show only a very remote affinity with the corre-
sponding forms of other southern regions. The inference
seems obvious that an isolated vegetable world was
independently developed on the south-west Pacific sea-
board at a time when a great inland sea still flowed
between the eastern and western sections of the Con-
tinent.
It is in the Coquimbo district that the peculiar Chilian
types begin to make their appearance, and they would
seem to range thence southwards no farther than the
Biobio basin (province of Concepcion), so that this local
flora, like that of the Cape, was originally confined to
somewhat narrow limits — a strip of coastlands stretching
across six or eight degrees of latitude, with a mean breadth
of about 80 miles. Most of the endemic types have
obviously originated on the western slopes of the Andes,
whence some modified forms have crept down to the
lowlands. " Several of these, as was inevitable, have
been found on the eastern flanks of the great range, and
it is probable that further exploration will add to the
302 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
number. But it is remarkable that as yet so large a
proportion should be confined to Chilian territory." ^ Even
the flora of the little Juan Fernandez group, now mostly
replaced by European intruders, was of an independent
character, and more allied to that of New Zealand than
of South America. Here was a solitary palm of peculiar
type, and it is remarkable that in Chili also only one
member of the widely -diffused palm family has been
discovered. Yet nearly all the arborescent forms are
evergreens, such as the bushy jpeumo {Cryjxtocarya
peumus), a species of laurel with edible berries ; and the
Quillaja saponaria, a member of the rosaceous family,
highly valued for the cleansing properties of its bark.
A distinctive feature of the Chilian flora is also the
extraordinary variety of the species flourishing side by
side in the woodlands. Here are nowhere seen con-
tinuous stretches of the same trees, as in the European
pine or birch groves or in the Patagonian and Fuegian
lands, where the forest growths comprise very few
distinct forms, besides the widespread Winter's bark and
a so-called " oak," which is really a beech {Fagas clrimys).
Many exotics have been successfully introduced from
Europe and other parts of the Eastern Hemisphere.
Such are the chestnut, poplar, and oak, which thrives even
more vigorously than in Europe ; the apple, which runs
wild in Araucania ; the willow, the vine, wheat, and
several other economic plants.
Fauna
Except in the class of birds, the Chilian fauna is far
less independent than the flora. Even the huemul
{Cervus chilensis), a species of deer figuring in the
^ Ball, op. cit. p. 142.
CHILI
303
national arms, is found also in Peru, and is even more
abundant in Argentina than in Chili. But the iivdu,
smallest of the deer tribe, appears to be elsewhere un-
known. The ape family is unrepresented, and there are
no jaguars, venomous snakes, or turtles. Characteristic
rodents, although not confined to Chili, are the chinchilla
of the warm northern districts, and the coyini, perhaps
remotely allied to the beaver, and like it frequenting all
the river banks. Both are of some economic value,
thanks to their nnich prized furs, which are largely
exported to Europe. Lizards are mainly c(jnfined to the
hot arid zone, while toads and frogs in considerable
variety inhabit all the marsliy wooded tracts. The
vicuna is seldom met, l)eing mostly replaced by the
304 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
allied giianaco, which has nowhere been domesticated, but
ranges in large herds as far south as Magellan Strait.
A large spider, whose bite is much dreaded, appears to be
confined to Chili, where it infests the cultivated lands
and especially the wheat-fields. There are no turtles,
and scarcely any fishes in the lakes and rivers, although
the marine waters abound in animal life — a peculiar
species of cod, a gigantic crayfish, and enormous banks of
mussels, sea-otters, and several varieties of the seal family.
Some of these forms range to the Juan Fernandez group,
where are met two species of humming-birds, one con-
fined to these islands, the other occurring also on the
mainland, together with a third species peculiar to Chili.
Besides the condor and parrots, ranging far to the
south, the Chilian avifauna presents an extraordinary
number of indigenous forms entirely confined to this
region, and no doubt intimately associated with the
characteristic leafy evergreen vegetation of all the central
districts. Conspicuous amongst the marine birds are the
albatross, both the white and the black species; the
giant petrel, closely resembling the black albatross ; the
so-called " cape-pigeon " {Daption capeme), which has an
immense range in the southern hemisphere, and the
Colomba, with plumage like that of a turtle-dove but
nearly as large as the Cape pigeon.
Inhabitants — The Araucanians
In pre-Columbian times the Kio Maule (35° S. lat.)
formed the southern boundary of the Peruvian empire,
and the etlmical parting-line between its Quichua-Aymara
inhabitants and the Aucaes or " Eebels," as they called
their independent southern neighbours.-^ From Auca
1 It is no longer possible to determine the racial affinities of the
CHILI 305
come the Spanish forms Aucanes, Araucanes, and their
territory, Araucania, whence the English term Arau-
canians. Although recognising neither hereditary tribal
chiefs nor supreme rulers, and constituting a mere
aggregate of family groups without apparent political
cohesion of any kind, these " Warriors " already formed
in remote times a compact nationality sufficiently
organised for all defensive purposes, and strong enough
to maintain their independence first against the con-
quering Incas, and afterwards against the Spanish
Conquistadores themselves. Pizarro's associate, Almagro,
extended his march in 1535 to the Maule, and he was
followed in 1540 by Pedro de Valdivia, who founded
Santiago and in the course of ten years fought his way
to the Biobio basin, while his lieutenant, Aldarete, even
penetrated into Araucania proper. But the heart of the
nation remained untouched by these events, and con-
tinued for over a century after that time to offer a stout
and successful resistance to the invaders, who are said to
have lost more men during the fierce struggle than in all
their wars of conquest elsewhere in the New World.
They had at last to give up the attempt to reduce the
stubborn Araucans, and the protracted warfare, com-
memorated by Alonzo de Ercilla's epic poem, Araucana,
was brought to a close with the treaties of 1641 and
1655, recognising the autonomy of the Moluche nation
within the limits of the present province of Arauco.
This territory, however, which has an area of about
60,000 square miles between Arauco Bay and the Eio
Valdivia, has since been encroached upon, not by force
Copayapus, Coquimbos, and others who dwelt north of the Rio Mania, and
some of whose tribal names survive in th'^ local nomenclature. Most of these
aborigines had submitted to the authority of the Incas fully a century
before the ai'rival of the Spaniards, to whom they offered no resistence
after the overthrow of the Peruvian empire.
VOL. I X
306 co:\rPENDiuM of geography and ti:.\vel
of arms but by a peaceful forward moveuient, which has
left scarcely a nominal independence to the natives, and
is gradually absorbing them in the rest of the Chilian
population. Interminglings had akeady taken place
through the capture of white or half-caste Spanish women
during the border warfare, and the process has since been
continued by friendly alliances between the two peoples.
The Moluche domain is now nearly divided into two
sections by the railways advancing from the coast and
from the Andes towards the central plain ; all strategical
points have long been occupied, and no serious effort has
Ijeen made to recover a political independence now
perhaps less valued than formerly, since the abortive
attempt made some years ago to set up a separate
" kingdom " under a French adventurer.
From their present peaceful attitude, and their devo-
tion to agriculture, and especially stock-breeding, in which
they excel, the Araucanians would appear to have
accepted the inevitable, satisfied to exchange a precarious
autonomy for the status of free and respected Chilian
citizens. The process of assimilation, already completed
in the Chiloe and Chonos Archipelagos, must spread on
the mainland all the more rapidly, since the so-called
tribal groups are nothing more than territorial divisions.
Such are the Picun-che, or "North-men"; the Huilli-
che, " South-men " ; the Molu-clie, " West-men " ; and the
Pehuen-che, " Pine-men," that is, the people of the central
pine-groves, most numerous and powerful of all. On the
eastern slopes of the Andes were the Pi(c/-cAe, "East-men,"
who afterwards ranged down the Eio Negro, and thus came
in contact with the Pampas Indians. For the Moluches
these Pampeans were also " East-men," whence the con-
fusion between the two groups still prevalent in ethno-
graphic writings. But their radically distinct languages,
CHILI 307
all highly poljsynthetic, enable us clearly to discriminate
between the Araucanian and Pampean Puelches, as well as
between both and the Patagonian Tehuelches.
The Fuegians — Yahgans and Alacalufs
A branch of these Patagonians are undoubtedly the
Onas of East Fuegia, who in remote times crossed the
Strait, and found new and congenial homes in the open
steppe region of King Charles South Land. The rela-
tionship is fully attested by their physical appearance,
speech, and usages, in which respects the Onas differ
profoundly from the Yahgans and Alacalufs, who are
the true aborigines of the archipelago.
Both of these groups occupy a low position in the
social scale, and while the Alacalufs of the western islands
may perhaps be descendants of the Araucanians, who
have become debased in their unfavourable environment,
the Yahgans of Beagle Channel would appear to be sur-
viving representatives of the primitive populations,
who, like the remotely allied Botocudos of Brazil, have
remained almost stationary since the Stone Ages.
In recent times some of the Yahgans have been
brought under civilising influences by the English
missionaries ; but those first met by European explorers
are described as the most degraded of savages, with no
arts, no clothes except undressed skins, no habitations or
other shelters against the inclement Austral winters, no
permanent ftxmily ties, and with mental faculties so little
developed that their intelligence has been compared with
the stationary instincts of animals. From the vast size
and the contents of the kitchen-middens occurring in
several parts of the Archipelago, it is evident that the
Magellanic lands have been inhabited for incalculable
308
GOMPEXDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
ages ])y these aljorigines. Yet till quite recent times
none of them had progressed to any appreciable extent
beyond the extremely rude social condition of their
Palaeolithic ancestors. The charge of cannibalism, how-
ever, which was brought against them by the early
observers, is said to be groundless, and their chief food
is certainly not their aged or infirm relatives, or even the
slain in battle, as has often been asserted, but mussels
and other shell-fish, supplemented by the flotsam and
jetsam of the surrounding waters. To these resources
are added fish and aquatic birds, not, however, by the
Yahgans, who have no knowledge of navigation, but by
the somewhat more advanced Alacalufs, whose large sea-
CHILI 309
worth}^ skiffs are often met by Einopean vessels plying
on the stormy waters of the Archipelago. On these
occasions civilisation and savagery come into momentary
contact, giving rise to strange scenes, which have been
vividly described by Dr. W. H. Eussell : —
" A woman with straight black hair, white teeth, and
dancing black eyes, naked to the loins, sat in the stern of
the frail craft of plank and bark, with a child in her
lap, handling a clumsy, ill-shaped paddle ; at her feet
there crouched a child of some three years old, naked and
apparently quite contented, close to the faggots and
burning embers placed on the stones which served as
ballast. Another woman set on a thwart, and plied her
oar with one hand, while she held out the other toward
the ship, holding up a couple of otter skins, and asking
for largesse, and her appeals were enforced by shrill
screams for lacca ! hacca ! from her companions. A man
in a white hat, ragged blue frock-coat and trousers, sup-
plied the falsetto to the chorus of the women. The man
was of a sickly yellow, the skin of his face puckered and
withered like that of a monkey, his arms were thin and
muscleless, his eyes dull and unintelligent ; the women
were darker hued and far more pleasant to look upon.
Their arms and limbs were round and well shaped, their
shoulders plump and full. In a cutting wind, which
made us glad of our warm coats, they sat with their naked
children, almost naked themselves, smiling and happy —
at least they looked so when the ship opened a fire of
biscuits, bread, fruit, old clothes, and some small missiles
of tobacco on them. The little ones set to work at once
on bananas, and the mother clapped a fancy smoking-cap
on the head of the elder. The old garments, which were
thrown over to thejn, were carefully put away, and were
not used, for the moment at all events. The savages in
.'UO COMrEXDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AXL) TEAVEL
the canoes were all much alike, with little variety save
in age, all the women with dazzling teeth, straight hair,
and black eyes, rather prominent cheek-bones and square
jaws ; the younger lusty enough, and better and stronger
looking than the men. As long as there were hopes of
offers for the poor seal and otter skins and l3unches of
red berries they held up, or of gifts of bread or other
edibles, they hung to the ship, never ceasing to scream
Inwca, I say hacca ! and galieta, or hiscuito. ' They are
not Christians,' said one of the Chilian passengers ; ' nor
are they likely to become civilised, less so than ever now
since the sheep-farmers shoot them. The latter say they
must shoot Fuegians to prevent them stealing their
sheep.' The Fuegians might say, ' We did not ask you to
come to our country with your sheep, and we can't
help stealing sheep when we are hungry.' They will
probably die out rapidly now that sheep-farming has
come into vogue, just as the Australians and their dingoes
did." 1
The Chilians
Apart from the Araucanians in course of absorption,
and the Fuegians in course of extinction, all the inhabit-
ants of Chili have long been merged in a common
nationality of Hispano-American descent and of Spanish
speech. Their civil wars took place in 1830, 1851, and
1859, but they had a long period of internal peace from
1860 to 1890. In 1891 another very sanguinary civil
war was fought, ending in a successful revolution. There
has been internal peace since 1892.
Alone among South American Eepublics Chili has
shown a predatory disposition. She has extended her
territories at the expense of her neighbours by conquest.
^ Op. cit. pp. 29-31.
CHILI 311
The success which has hitherto attended her arms in the
invasion of the territory of her neighbours has added
an assumption of superiority to tlie patriotic feeling
characteristic of all Hispano-American peoples.
Besides the Peruvian element, there are three or four
families of English descent in Chili. An English name
is borne by a Chilian admiral whose father married a
Chilian lady and settled in the country.
The Chilian nationality has also been strengthened
by the accession of immigrants, chiefly Germans, whose
intention is to settle permanently in the country.
Topography — Railway Enterprise
Apart from the capital, Santiago, and its seaport,
Valparaiso, which rank amongst the great cities of tlie
southern continent, large centres of population are not so
numerous as might be expected from tlie generally
prosperous state of the country, and especially from the
immense development of the mining and allied industries
in the northern provinces. But it is to be remembered
that these provinces all lie within the rainless zone, which
has no attractions except for those connected with the
local interests. On the other hand, the Magellanic lands
are scarcely inhabitable, while the more favoured central
districts are engaged mainly in agricultural pursuits,
which are nowhere favourable to the development of large
urban groups. From the subjoined table it will be seen
that in the whole State there are scarcely a dozen towns
with over 10,000 inhabitants, and, it may be added,
these places are mostly situated on or near the coast, and
owe their prosperity to the steadily increasing foreign
trade of the country : —
112
COMPENDIUiM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Pop. 1S95.1
Pop. 1895
Santiago ,
256,500
Cauquenes .
8,600
Valparaiso
122,500
Valdivia
8,000
Concepcioii
40,000
Angeles
7,800
Taica
33,000
San Fernando
7,500
Iquique .
33,000
Temuco
7,400
Chilian .
29,000
Linares
7,300
Serena (Coquimlin)
16,000
Angol . . . .
7,000
Antofagasta
13,500
Rancagua
6,700
Gurico
12,700
Puerto Montt
3,500
San Felipe
11,300
Punta Arena''
3,200
Tacna
9,400
Ancud . . . .
3,200
Copiapo .
9,300
Lebn .
3,000
In the arid n
oitheni di
stricts, which but f
or the
mineral wealth could never have invited any settlers, the
chief places are Fisagua, Iquique, and Antofagasta on the
coast, and Tarapaca and Huantajaya in the interior.
Here British influences are everywhere dominant, and to
the capitalists, who have developed the nitrate and allied
industries, belong the workshops, the warehouses, the
railways, the harbour works, the shipping, and the whole
trade of the country. The very materials — galvanised
iron and shingles — of which the houses of Iquique and
Antofagasta are mainly constructed have been imported
from England or the States, and put together on the
spot. Iquique, the chief centre of this ceaseless move-
ment, possesses the safest roadstead, under the shelter of
rocks formerly covered with guano, is now supplied with
water by an aqueduct from the neighbouring slopes, and
is connected by a network of nearly 300 miles of railways
with the La Noria nitrate works, with Pisagua and other
points on the seaboard.
^ These populations are those of the towns themselves, and not of the
" municipalities," which in most cases comprise large rural districts, and
convey an exaggerated idea of the size of the place. Thus Ancud, little
more than a good-sized village, has a municipal population of 25,000, and
76,000 are credited to the little town of Rengo, a few miles south of
Santiago.
CHILI
3i;
Some ten miles inland, at an altitude of 3000 feet
above the sea, are the famous silver-mines of Huantajaya,
which since their discovery in 1556 have yielded over
£70,000,000 of pure metal, but appear to be now nearly
exhausted. From Antofagasta on Moreno Bay farther
down the coast much silver continues to be exported ;
but this comes chiefly from Huanchaca and the other
Bolivian mines, which are now tapped by the railway
connectincf the Titicaca basin with the Pacific.
K.TlQrK.
Copiaih), an historical place perpetuating the name of
tlie old Copayapu Indians, was an oljscure fishing village
till the discovery of the rich argentiferous lodes of
Chcmarcillo in 1832. The railway connecting Copiapo
with tlie port of Caldcra, 5 miles to the north-west, was
opened in 1851, and is consequently the oldest in Soutli
America except the Demerara line in British Guiana.
Silver occurs even as far south as Yerhahuena, at the foot
of the Cerro de la Plata (" Silver Hill "), which is con-
nected by rail with its port of Carrizal Bajo. Here the
argentiferous ores are replaced l)y copper, which is found
314
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
in alnmdance in the neighbouring Huasco basin, and
beyond it in many parts of the province of Coquimbo.
Serena, tlie provincial capital, although destitute of a
harbour, enjoys the advantage of a slieltered roadstead in
Tongoy Bay, enclosed on tlie south by the sharp lieadland
of Lengua de A^aca (" Cow's Tongue "). Tliis thriving
seaport has also become the centre of a network of rail-
C0QUIMI50.
ways running up the Elqui valley to Vicuna, south to
Ovalh, and soutli-west to the ports of Tongoy and Ilira-
davia. The Ovalle line is eventually to l)e continued
through Comhai-hala and Ulaj^el to Prtorca, wliere a
junction will l)e effected with the Yal}>araiso-Santiago
system, and thus with the Trans-Andean trunk line now
approaching completion.
Valparfdso was so named by its founder, Saaverda,
CHILI 315
from his native village in Old Castile. Its prosperity
is not due to any natural advantages, for the road-
stead is fully exposed to the northern winds, and hut
partly sheltered from those of the south by a low
headland, which has lately been extended by a break-
water. The space Ijetween the neighljouring hills and
the shore is also so narrow .that the city has been
developed, not in a horizontal direction, but vertically up
the steep slopes of the Coast Eange. Seen from the
water, it thus presents an almost unique panoramic view,
far more picturesque to the eye of the passing observer
than convenient for the permanent residents. A high
and broad mountain ridge forms a crescent round the
open bay, and the flanks of this ridge have been furrowed
by numerous emhrados or deep ravines, both sides of
which are lined wdth houses of all sizes and shapes, im-
parting a very singular appearance to the city.
Along the shore skirting the bay runs the circular
road between the waterside and the overhanoins; cliffs,
and even for this thoroughfare room had to be found
partly by filling in the low-lying beach, and partly by
blasting away the projecting rocks. The roadway, thus
almost literally hewn out of the mountain-side, forms the
great artery of Valparaiso, and is skirted by some fine
warehouses, banks, government and other public Ijuildings.
According to the width of the various ravines in the
precipitous escarpments, the lower parts of the city gain
more or less easy access to the outlets of the valleys,
while the plateau developed on the summit of the Cerro,
and now densely covered with houses, is reached by
winding paths excavated in the flanks of the eneirclinu-
ridge.
Foreigners constitute in some respects the most im-
portant element of tlie population. While showing a
CHILI
317
en-eater tendency to become naturalised than is the case
in some other parts of South America, they have largely
contributed to the rapid commercial prosperity of this
great emporium of the New World. " The names over
the shops, many of which are large and handsome, are
mainly foreign, German being perhaps in a majority ;
but the important mercantile houses are chiefly English,
and, except among the poorer classes, the English language
appears to be predominant. All people engaged in
business acquire it when young, and very many of Spanish
descent speak it with fluency and correctness.^
From Valparaiso to ^Santiago the distance in a straight
line is not more than 55 miles. But the railway, which
has to surmount the Coast Kange by a pass 4310 feet
high, makes a great detour of 1 1 5 miles up the Quillota
valley, and then round to the south, in order to reach
the capital, which stands on the central plain 1740 feet
above sea-level. The great city, which for population
is surpassed in South America only by Eio de Janeiro
and Buenos Ayres, enjoys an exceptional reputation for
its well-i3aved, broad and clean thoroughfares. Some
wealthy owners of mines and large landed proprietors
have here erected many sumptuous edifices, rivalling in
splendour the palaces of princes. But with these ex-
ceptions the architecture of the place has been wisely
kept within the limits consistent with economy and
comfort, cleanliness and the climatic conditions. Hence
most of the houses are built in the old Spanish style, and
only one story high, as a precaution against the frequent
and at times terrific earthquakes by which the country
is visited.
Owing to this circumstance, and to the straggling
character of the suburbs, Santiago covers a larger area
1 J. Ball, op. cit. p. 140
CHILI 319
than many places greatly exceeding it in population.
But the inconvenience of " magnificent distances " is
obviated by the numerous tramways running at very low
fares in all directions from one end of the city to the
other. Tlie finest view of the place is afforded by the
Cerro Santa Lucia, a reddish porphyry crag rising abruptly
from the very heart of the city, and laid out with much
taste as a public pleasure-ground. It was on the summit
of this historical height that the first settlers erected the
stronghold, whicli enabled them to hold out for six years
against their implacable Araucanian foes. So closely
were they besieged that they were driven to live on the
most loathsome food, and the little corn they could grow
under the very muzzles of their guns.
The Alameda is one of the finest in Spanish America,
forming a triple avenue nearly two miles long and about
100 yards wide, lined with poplars and adorned with
fountains and statues of national celebrities. Conspicuous
amongst these monuments is the equestrian statue of
General O'Higgins, one of the foremost lieroes of the war
of independence, who, however, banislied by his ungrate-
ful countrymen, died in exile.
For the splendour of their picturesque surroundings,
few places can compare with the Chilian capital. " Eio
de Janeiro, Constantinople, Palermo, Bey rut, Plymouth,
all have the added beauty that the sea confers on land
scenery ; but such a spectacle as is formed by the
majestic semicircle of great peaks that curve round
Santiago, lit by the varying tints of day and evening,
is scarcely to be matched elsewhere in the world. In
position, as in plan of building, I was reminded of Turin ;
but here the Alps are nearly twice as high and at half
the distance. Further than that, the low country at
Turin opens to the east, and, although glorious sunrise
320 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
effects are not seldom visiljle, they uever rival the splen-
dours of the close of day." ^
Besides the coast-line, Santiago is connected, south-
wards with Curico by a railway running for 116 miles
through an extremely romantic country, and northwards
with the still more romantic region of Mount Aconcagua
by that section of the Trans-Andean system which
branches off from Llaillai on the Valparaiso line, and
ascends the valley of the Eio Aconcagua to San Felipe
and Santa Rosa cle los Andes. Here a gap of about 44
miles still remains to be bridged over between the Chilian
and the Argentine systems, and another of about 100
miles to effect a junction wdth the lines advancing from
Serena in the direction of Petorca and Santa Eosa. But
the Central Chilian system is now completed in the
direction of the south by the line running from Curico
through the important towns of Molina, Talca, Linares,
Parral, San Carlos, and Chilian to Concepcion near the
coast, with a short Ijranch from Bulnes to Torn^ on
Talcahuano Bay, and down the east side of this inlet to
Penco. Here it bifurcates, one branch skirting the south
side of the bay to the port and arsenal of Talcahuano,
while the other rejoins the main line at Concepcion on
the right bank of the Biobio estuary.
Founded by Valdivia in 1541, but soon after captured
by the Araucanians, and later visited by many calamities
— earthquakes, inundations, and renewed attacks of the
natives — Concepcion has nevertheless become the " capital
of South Chili," and the chief manufacturing centre in
the republic. Its prosperity is due partly to the dis-
covery of the rich coalfields which extend for 100 miles
through the neighbouring province of Arauco, and partly
to its position close to Talcahuano Bay, a spacious inlet
^ J. Ball, op. cit. p. 156.
CHILI
321
entirely sheltered from the south-west winds, and forming
incomparably the finest natural haven on the coast of Chili.
Hence the chief naval station of the republic has been
established at this point, and while extensive harbour
works have long been in progress on the south side r»f
the bay, the abundance of cheap fuel has fostered the
development of metallurgic and other industries at Tome,
Penco, — the original site of Concepcion, Coronel, Lota, and
other places on the east side of Arauco I'ay.
Strangers arriving for the first time at Coronel are
scarcely prepared for the numerous indications of
prosperity afforded by this busy little seaport, which
stands on a sheltered inlet about midway between C(jn-
cepcion and Arauco, and is the chief centre of the trade
and industries of the surrounding district. Factory
VOL. I ' Y
322 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
chimneys meet the eye in all directions, the harbour is
generally crowded with shipping, and Coronel, scarcely
known before 1851, " when it was elevated to the dignity
of a port, has now its civil governor and its maritime
sub-delegate, a hospital and a lazaretto, consular repre-
sentatives of the Great Powers, telegraphic communication,
not merely with Chili and Peru, but with Europe and
the world." ^
The yearly output of the local coal-fields already
exceeds 500,000 tons, and copper also abounds in the
district. Mining enterprise has been stimulated by the
construction of a coast line of railway, which forms a
southern extension of the Central Chilian system, and is
carried over the Bioljio estuary at Concepcion by a
magnificent viaduct with sixty-two massive piers, and a
total length of 6000 feet, including approaches. The Pdo
Malleco still farther south is spanned by another great
railway bridge 1400 feet long and over 300 feet above
the bed of the river.
In the extreme south of the Chilian mainland are
Valdivia, near the mouth of the Callecalle ; Maidlin, on the
navigable estuary of like name, and Puerto Monti, at the
head of Pteloncavi Bay. Ancud, at the western entrance
of Chacao Channel, on the north side of Chiloe, is the
San Carlos of the early Spanish settlers. In the flourish-
ing days of Antarctic whale-fishing this place was much
frequented by skippers, who here found good anchorage
and some protection from the southern winds. Else-
where in the Archipelagoes and the Magellanic lands
there are no important settlements except the already
mentioned Funta Arenas, the " Sandy Point " of English
mariners. Founded in 1851 as an agricultural settle-
ment, and afterwards transformed for a time to a
^ Russell, op. cit. p. 35.
CHILI 323
Chilian convict-station, Punta Arenas has since acquired
some importance as the headquarters of the Fuegian
administration, and an indispensable port of call for
all shipping passing through Magellan Strait. The
local resources are not inconsiderable, and the settlers
believe that bright prospects are secured for the capital
of the Magellanic lands by the undoubted presence of
gold-bearing reefs and coal-fields in the district, which is
also well suited for sheep and cattle farming.
Natural Resources — Agricultural and Mineral Wealth
From the standpoint of its natural resources Chili has
been divided into four distinct zones: (1) the purely
agricultural region ; (2) the agricultural and mineral
combined ; (3) the exclusively mineral ; (4) the forests
and fishing - grounds. The first zone comprises the
central provinces from Aconcagua to Yaldivia, a well-
watered and fertile tract, in which husbandry and stock-
breeding are fairly well developed. About half of the
population is engaged in these pursuits, the chief products
being wheat (yearly crop 30 million bushels), other cereals
(9 million bushels), wine of good quality (yearly export
70,000 to 80,000 gallons). In the mixed agricultural
and mineral zone, comprising the province of Arauco and
some neighbouring districts, coal, iron, copper, and brick-
clay abound, while stock-breeding is carried on by the
Araucanian Indians with great success.
The third or exclusively mineral region includes all
the waterless northern districts of Coquimbo, Atacama,
Tarapaca, and Antofagasta, partly belonging to Chili
proper, partly acquired by conquest from Peru and
Bolivia. Here is concentrated a prodigious store of
valuable organic and mineral products — nitrates, borax.
324 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
iodine, gold, silver, copper, iron, gypsum, cobalt, manganese.
The whole province of Atacama is one vast mine.
Wherever the trouble has been taken to look for them,
treasures of mineral ores or alkalies, valuable as articles
of commerce, have been found. The amazing number
of mines may be imagined from the fact that in
the first district of Caracoles alone upwards of 4000
silver-mines have already been surveyed and assessed.
Caracoles, from caracol, a snail shell, is so named from
the mountains consisting mostly of a rich fossiliferous
shelly limestone, which abounds in ammonities. The
mineral districts of Northern Chili extend southward by
Illapel and Conchali towards Valparaiso. Of copper,
which occurs chiefly in Coquimbo, the annual output
exceeds 3600 tons; of silver, 360,000 lbs.; and of gold
1100 lbs.
The nitrate-fields cover an area of 225,000 acres, and
are estimated still to contain 20 million tons of the
nitrate of commerce. A large amount of British capital
is invested in this industry, the annual yield of which
rose from 550,000 tons in 1884 to 1,092,000 in 1896.
Mineral waters — ferruginous, chloruretted, sulfurous, or
charged with carbonic acid — occur especially at Cauquenes
in the province of Colchagua, at Chilian in Nuble, and at
Colina, Apoquindo, and Tiltil in Santiago. The forest
zone, which contains an immense supply of timber,
extends from the province of Valdivia southwards to
Fuegia. Here arborescent vegetation is favoured by the'
heavy rainfall, which renders agricultural pursuits un-
profitable. The marine waters in the same high latitudes
teem with animal life — several kinds of- edible fishes, sea-
otters, seals, mussels, and other shell-fish.
In the Araucanian stock-breeding districts it is
pleasant to see the numerous herds of cattle and horses
CHILI o 2 5
grazing on the pasture-lands along all the river valleys.
They are tended by the mounted Huao, who corresponds
to the Gaucho of the Argentine pampas, but perhaps takes
life somewhat more leisurely. He may often be seen,
enveloped in his poncho, amusing himself, like the
mediaeval sportsmen, with a tame falcon on his wrist,
while the real work of looking a£t(^r the herds is done by
a specimen of the fine breed of/native wolf-dogs crouching
at his feet. y"^
Land Tenure — Emigration
Unfortunately in the strictly agricultural districts
there is a dark side to the picture presented by the
general prosperity of the people. The conditions of the
land tenure have given rise to much political strife, and
undoubtedly constitute a source of danger to the social
system. There are here no small holdings occupied, as in
France, by an independent peasant class, nothing, in fact,
but day labourers employed for a mere pittance on the
large landed estates. The families of the oligarchy have
secured for themselves the possession of the whole land,
and the poor wretches hired by them are really worse
off than slaves, or than the Eussian serfs before their
emancipation.
The abject poverty of the labouring classes in Chili
can scarcely be paralleled elsewhere in the whole world,
and in many districts the evil is intensified, as in
Ireland before the potato famine, by , over-population.
Official returns show that, owing to the prevailing
misery no less than 30,000 labourers migrated in one
year to Peru, where they found employment on the railway
works then in progress. In proportion to its population
no country in the world sent forth such a stream of
emigrants as Chili did in the seventies or eighties.
326 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
According to the carefully prepared returns of the
National Society of Agriculture, there is 1 emigrant in
Germany for every 200 of the population, 1 to 113 in
England, 1 to 2000 in France, but in Chili at that time
1 to every 7 6 ! Partly to repair these losses, and partly
to develop the general resources of the country. Chili
has sought to attract to its shores a share of the stream
of European migration, but has naturally received the
answer that, if prospects of settlers are so bright in the
republic, why cannot the native workmen remain there ?
In 1897 the total number of immigrants, chiefly from
Italy and Spain, fell short of 600.
Administration
Although the war of independence, begun in 1810,
was brought to a successful issue in 1818, the present
Constitution dates only from the year 1833. It pro-
vides for a legislature vested in the National Congress,
consisting of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, the
former elected for six years in the proportion of one for
every three Deputies, and the latter elected for three
years in the proportion of one for every 30,000 of
the population. The Senators, who must have an income
of £400 a year, are returned directly by provinces on the
cumulative system of voting, the Deputies, who must
have an income of £100, directly by departments, both
bodies being chosen by the same electors. The executive
is entrusted to a President, elected for five years by
delegates nominated by the people. The President, who
has a modified veto, but is not re-eligible, is assisted by
a Council of State and a Cabinet of Ministers for the
interior, foreign affairs, worship and colonisation, justice
and public instruction, finance, war and marine, industry
and public works.
A -\
U
NORTH CHILE
fPlK It
'■"xS^
_2l_
"^ O I. J \ 1 X
i Y^m i -il*^'
^n
T (> .,s I
'"I
„^
\: N It ()
SobJ|, l'6336j000.100En^shSta.tuii_:il.l
Jtaihray^ ttho-nn Ouui^
indua Edwiu-d Stuifor
CHILI 327
In religious matters complete tolerance is proclaimed
by the Constitution, which respects and protects all creeds,
while Eoman Catholicism is so far privileged that it is
maintained by the State. Civil marriage, however, is the
only form acknowledged by law.
Education is free at the expense of the State, and in
189 6 the public primary schools numbered 1250 with
115,000 pupils. In the same year there were 412
private schools with an attendance of over 18,000.
Higher instruction is amply provided for by the
University and the National Institute of Santiago,
several lyceums, provincial colleges, and technical schools.
In no other Hispano-American State is so much attention
paid to the educational interests of the people. The
leading statesmen have proclaimed the development of
instruction as the basis of all true progress. Every
province has its gymnasium, and the annual grant for
educational purposes averages £250,000, an enormous
sum for a revenue not exceeding £5,000,000.
Although t]ie standing army is limited to about 9000
men, there is a National Guard, in which all citizens
from 20 to 40 years of age are obliged to serve, and which
places a land force of 430,000 men at the disposal of the
State in case of war. The naval forces, comprising five
ironclads, several cruisers, destroyers, torpedoes, and gun-
boats, is strong enough to maintain the supremacy of
Chili over all the neighbouring States in the Pacific and
Austral waters.
CHAPTEE X
ARGENTINA
Boundaries, Areas, Populations — European Immigrants — Physical Fea-
tures — General Survey — The Argentine and Patagonian Cordilleras —
The Cordoba, Ventana, and Tandil Heights — Argentina, Fuegia, and
Staten Island— The Pampas— The Patagonian Plateau— Hydrography
— The Parana -Uruguay Basin and Delta — The Rios Bermejo and
Salado — The Eio Dulce and the Cordoba Affluents— The Lower Parana
and the Plate Estuary — The Upper and Lower Colorado Basins — The
Patagonian Rivers and Lacustrine Basins — The Magellanic Lakes —
Climate — Flora — Scenery of Gran Chaco — Fauna.
Boundaries, Areas, Populations
The Argentine Eepublic, or simply Argentina, is the
largest and most populous of all the Hispano-American
States in the Southern Continent. Here it is exceeded
in these respects by Brazil alone, and even if the whole
of Latin America be taken into account, it will still hold
the second place for extent, being nearly double the size
of Mexico, although for population greatly outnumbered
by that State. Like Bolivia, Argentina is conterminous
with five of the South American republics — Chili along
its western and southern borders, where the still pending
frontier questions were discussed in the last chapter ;
Bolivia in the north ; Paraguay, Brazil, and Uruguay in
the east. As determined by the Convention of 1876,
ARGENTINA 329
the boundary towards Paraguay coincides with the Eio
Pilcomayo from the Bolivian frontier to its confluence
with the Eio Paraguay, then with this river to the
Parana confluence, beyond which it ascends the Parana
to its junction on the left bank with the Eio I-guazu,
where it strikes the Brazilian frontier.
By the Convention of 1890 the line towards Brazil
ascends the I-guazu and its San Antonio tributary to
its source, from which point it runs in a straight line to
the Upper Paperi, and thence down that river southwards
to its confluence with the Uruguay. Then the Uruguay
forms the boundary towards the republic of Uruguay
from 30° S. lat. to the Plate estuary, which separates the
two States in siich a way as to leave to Argentina the
small but strategically important island of Martin Garcia.
Pending a settlement of the Chilian frontier question,
the actual extent of Argentina cannot be accurately
determined, and in point of fact the approximate estimates
vary from about 1,200,000 to 1,320,000. This vast
region, making about one-third of the whole of Europe,
formerly constituted a number of autonomous States
loosely banded together for general and defensive purposes
under the name of Provincias Unidas del Bio de la Plata.
But since 1853, when the confederacy was joined by
Buenos Ayres, these semi-independent States have been
merged in a single republic comprising fourteen provinces
and nine territories, with areas and populations as
under : —
Area in Population
Provinces. ^q^ ,nilgs_ (IS95).
Buenos Ayres \ ^^^ 663, 854 1
(Federal District) J
Buenos Ayresj ggOQO 921,168
(Province) J
Santa Fe 18,000 397,188
1 Population (30th March 1899), 773,351.
330
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TEAVEL
Area iu
Population
Provinces. g^_ n.ileg.
(1S9d).
Eiitre Rios 45,000
292,019
Corrieutes
54,000
239,618
Rioja
.
31,500
69,502
Catamarca .
31,500
90,161
San Juan .
29,700
84,251
Mendoza .
54,000
116,186
Cordova
54,000
351,223
San Luiz .
18,000
81,450
Santiago del Estero
31,500
161,502
Tucunian .
13,500
215,742
Salta .
45,000
118,015
Jujuy
27,000
49,713
Total Piov
inces
. 515,815
3,851,542
Territories.
Misiones 23,932
33,163
Formosa
73,000
4, 829
Chaco
85,000
10,422
Pampa
91,000
25,914
Piio Negro .
. 124,000
9,241
Neuguen .
57,000
14,517
Chubut .
154,000
3,748
Santa Cruz
. 182,500
1,058
Tierra del Fuego
13,000
477
Tot£
il . . 1,319.247
3,954,911
Here it will be noticed that the territories, by which
are to be understood the unsettled districts still thinly
occupied by the aborigines, comprise nearly two-thirds
of the whole State, with a population that may almost
be considered a negligible quantity. In fact the natives
have almost disappeared from all the provinces, and are
reduced to a mere handful — some 30,000 altogether —
in the territories. Many of these, especially in Chaco,
are unreclaimable savages, who are rapidly dying out, not
by absorption, a process which has long ceased to operate,
but by absolute extinction. Nor were the aborigines at
any time very numerous in a region consisting to a large
ARGENTINA 331
extent of open steppe-lauds, treeless plateaux, or marshy
^voodlauds, whicli were quite incapable of supporting
numerous populations living in a state of nature. Hence
the European settlers have here preserved their racial
purity to a greater extent than in most other parts of
Latin America.
European Immigrants
Nevertheless, the present inhabitants of Argentina are
of a less homogeneous character than those of the other
Hispano-American States. In recent years immigrants
have flocked in large numbers to this region, not only
from the peninsula, but also from the British Isles,
Germany, Italy, and other parts of Europe, and these
fresh arrivals have not yet had time to merge in a single
nationality with the earlier Spanish settlers. In many
places they are massed in numerous independent ethnical
communities, speaking their own languages, following
their own religions, customs, and traditions, and keeping
socially aloof from the indigenous Spanish-speaking in-
habitants. In 1896 they were reinforced by as many
as 102,000 newcomers, and in the period of twenty-five
years ending in 1899 the total number of immigrants
exceeded two millions. From the subjoined table of
foreign settlers, calculated for the year 1895, it will be
seen that the great majority came from the South
European countries of Neo- Latin speech, and as these
naturally tend to merge more rapidly than others in
the Spanish - speaking population, the expectations
of certain political economists that the Anglo-Saxons,
or at least the Anglo-Teutons, might become the
controlling element in Argentina, seem doomed to
disappointment : —
332 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Italians 492,636
Spaniards 198,685
French 94,098
British 21,788
Germans ......... 17,143
Swiss 14,789
Austrians 12,803
Portuguese 2,269
Jews and Sundries 32,184
Total . . . 886,395
Physical Features — G-eneral Survey
The popular idea that Argentina consists mainly of a
boundless level plain, for which the early settlers retained
the old Quichua term 'pam'pa, is probably due to the
impression produced on strangers for the first time
arriving in the Plate estuary by the uniform aspect of
the surrounding lands. But a closer study of the actual
relations shows that this view is subject to profound
modification. True it is that a great part of the country
was formerly flooded by the already described Pampean
Sea, and consequently still presents a nearly horizontal
surface, with a slight, in some places a scarcely perceptible,
incline towards the Atlantic. But the great inland
basin was not only contracted, especially in the north-
west, by lofty ranges belonging to the Andean system,
but was also broken by high mountain masses, which
rose at several points above the surrounding waters.
Moreover, the primeval uniformity of the marine bed was
probably in early Tertiary times disturbed by movements
of upheaval arrested at different levels, while the
Pampean Sea itself was limited southwards by the
Patagonian plateau, which has certainly been dry land
also since Tertiary times.
These general features of a former, but still com-
ARGENTINA 333
paratively recent, geological age, are necessarily retiected
in the present conformation of the land. Hence, although
the pampas may be regarded as its most conspicuous
feature, they are found to be greatly diversified by
Andean highlands in the north-west between the Pil-
comayo and Bermejo basins, and farther south in the
province of Mendoza and Patagonia, as well as by the
isolated Sierra de Cordoba in the centre and the Tandil and
Yentana heights between the Plate and Colorado basins.
Further variety is imparted to the wiiole region by
the different elevations now presented by the pampas
themselves, which between the Cordoba hills and the
Rio Salado form a gently inclined terrace falling from
3000 to about 600 or 700 feet above the sea, and lower
down constitute a nearly level plain gradually falling
from 250 to 120 feet, and extending round the Plate
estuary all the way to the Atlantic. Although largely
due to the former upheaval of the bed of the inland sea,
these elevations also represent a large amount of detritus,
either accumulated in the form of talus at the foot of
the hills on the higher grounds, or else carried down
and slowly deposited as alluvial matter on the lower
grounds by the running waters from the surrounding-
Brazilian and Andean uplands. Such in broad outline
would appear to be the geological framework of the
Argentine lands, where are accordingly to be considered
the western (Argentine and Patagonian) Cordilleras, the
isolated central and southern heights, the steppe -like
pampas and the Patagonian tableland.
The Argentine and Patagonian Cordilleras
Although east of the main Andean range, which
forms the divide between the Chilian and Arojentine
334 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
States, there is no continuous parallel mountain chain,
the system nevertheless extends at several points to
considerable distances eastwards, either in connected or
even parallel ridges, or else in separate groups scattered
over the plains.
In the extreme north-west the Cerro de las Granadas
is a conspicuous object close to the Bolivian frontier,
and here a distinct line of snowy crests disposed in the
direction from north to south maintains a mean altitude
of over 11,000 feet. Farther south follow the Pasto
Gi^ande, Acay, Cachi, and other peaks, which are also
snow-clad throughout the year. West of the Jujuy
basin the Nevada de Chani and the Tres Cruces tower
to heights of 18,000 feet and upwards, while the Zenta
ridge, with summits approaching 17,000 feet, is crossed
by the Ze7ita Pass at an altitude of 14,800 feet. The
whole of this Alpine region shows clear traces of former
glaciation, although at present, owing to the absence of
moisture and the tropical heats, the normal snow-line
falls little below 17,000 feet.
West of the Tucuman plains, where the Andean
system is greatly contracted, a lofty range running for
about 30 miles north-east and south-west between the
Rio Juramento and the sources of the Eioja takes its
name from its culminating peak, Aconquija, which was
first scaled in 1883 by Eodolfo Hauthal and by him
estimated at 17,740 feet. Some 130 miles south-west
of Aconquija rises the superb Nevada de Famatina, which
is connected with the Andean plateau by a ridge parallel
to the main axis, and has an estimated height of 20,700
feet.
The Famatina range, which traverses the province
of Ptioja, is separated from the Great Andes by the
so-called Ante- Cordillera or Pre -Cordillera, a verv old
ARGENTINA
33 5
and formerly continuous chain, which is now broken
into several detached sections by tlie erosive action of
the head-waters of the Eio Verniejo. Here the connecting
plateau, 13,000 to 14,000 feet high, is dominated hy
several isolated crests, which rise 4000 or 5000 feet
above the surrounding puna. Such are the snowy peaks
of Boncte, Salto, Manrique, Totora, and several otlier
ACONCAGUA : PASO DE LOS CONTRABAXDISTAS.
summits, all exceeding 18,000 feet, and consecpiently
rising well above the snow-line.
Yet this bleak region of the puna, which is exposed
to fierce gales and blizzards, is traversed in several
directions by the so-called inrcas or mule-tracks leading
over the Great Andes down to the Copiapo valley in the
Atacama desert. Farther south the Cordillera del Tie/re,
another section of the same system, penetrates at a height
336 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
of over 16,000 feet into the province of Mendozii, where
it is connected by lateral ridges with Aconcagua. Here
the plateau is crossed by the main route between Buenos
Ayres and Santiago, and here is the abeady described
Cumbre Pass, which will soon be pierced by the trans-
Continental railway advancing both from the Chilian
and the Argentine sides.
Beyond the province of Mendoza, where the Great
Andes culminate about the Chilian frontier in Aconcagua
and Tupungato (see p. 278), the main axis again contracts,
developing a deep curve westwards, while the Argentine
and Patagonian offshoots of the Cordillera diminish
steadily in altitude southwards. Beyond the Mayiw
volcano, which still rises to a height of over 17,600 feet,
the isolated Nevddo de San Rafael falls to little over
16,000 feet. It is separated by a broad plateau,
formerly a large lacustrine basin, from the Malargiie
ridge, which is crossed by the Butaco Pass at a height
of scarcely 5000 feet. But in the transitional region
between Argentina proper and Patagonia the Ante-
Cordilleras broaden out eastwards, and attain great
elevations in some isolated groups, such as the Cerro
Payen in the Upper Colorado basin, and farther south
the Sierra Auca Mahinda, rising, according to some
estimates, above 16,000 feet.
It is, however, doubtful whether these eastern uplands
belong geologically to the Andean system. Some light
has been thrown on this point by the explorations of
Otto Nordenskjold in South-Western Patagonia, where
the snowy Cordillera, consisting of folded metamorphic
schists, is shown to be separated from the dry pampa
tableland of Tertiary age by a broad zone of transition,
with lofty mountains formed partly of younger contorted
slates, partly of horizontal or slightly inclined Tertiary
ARGENTINA 3 3 7
rocks, eruptive or sedimentary. " These mountains, on
the one hand, topographically form a direct continuation
of the Cordillera, and on the other are separated by
valleys that sometimes form extensive lowlands of a
character resembling that of Patagonia, and contain
rivers which mostly run to the Pacific. ... It seems
that the isolated mountains, even the actual pampa hills,
were once joined to the Central Cordillera. Pavers
flowing from this to the east afterwards cut out valleys
that were considerably widened by the action of great
glaciers extending far outside the mountains." ^
The Cordoba, Ventana, and Tandil Heights
That the isolated heights which rose above the surface
of the Pampean Sea — Sierra de Cordoba in the central
parts, Sierras Ventana and Tandil south of the Plate
estuary — have no physical connection with the Andean
system is evident both from the position of these groups
and from their geological constitution. The Cordoba
system, prolonged south-westwards in the Sierra de San
Luis, or de la Punta, consists of several parallel ridges
traversing the pampas for about 300 miles in the normal
direction from north to south at altitudes ranging from
3000 to 5000 feet, and culminating in the Champaqui
peak of the central ridge (7550 feet). In the San Luis
section the highest point is Tomolasta (6850 feet),
called also Cerro de las Minas from its rich gold-bearing
quartz reefs. The prevailing gneiss and other crystalline
formations are replaced towards the north-west by a
ridge of igneous origin, with a chain of extinct volcanoes
terminating westwards in the trachytic Cerro de Yerba
Buena (5400 feet).
1 Geogr. Jour., October 1897, p. 409.
VOL. I Z
338 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Granites, gneiss, quartzites, and Archaean rocks of
great age also prevail in the Ventana and Taudil chains,
which are disposed mainly in the direction from west to
east between the Plate and Colorado basins. These very
ancient uplands, ages older than the Andean system,
have, like the Brazilian highlands, been subjected to an
enormous amount of weathering. At one time they were
probably amongst the loftiest ranges on the glol^e, but
have now been reduced by meteoric agencies to hills of
quite moderate elevation, nowhere exceeding 3800 feet.
Although one section of the Tandil system bears the
name of Sierra del Volcan, no recent eruptive rocks are
anywhere to be seen, and the term " Volcan " would
appear to be, not a Spanish, but an Indian word meaning
a gap or breach, in reference to the broad depression
separating the Volcan ridge from the Tandil range
proper.
Argentine Fuegia, and Staten Island
In the Argentine section of Fuegia (see p. 270) the
Patagonian steppe is continued beyond Magellan Strait
to the southern uplands, skirting the north side of Beagle
Channel. As shown in the last chapter, these uplands
belong unquestionably to the Andean system, and are
continued seawards by the rugged and almost uninhabit-
able Staten Island. This terminal point of the continent
towards the south-east consists almost entirely of a rocky
snow-clad ridge about 3000 feet high, and 44 miles
long, with an average breadth of scarcely 5 miles. It
is separated from King Charles South Land by Le Maire
Strait, 15 to 18 miles wide, and the whole island, 200
square miles in extent, is of such a forbidding aspect
that no attempt has ever been made to form a permanent
settlement on its inhospitable shores. Its only in-
ARGENTINA 339
habitants are the men in charge of the lighthouse which
has been erected at CVy^e San Juan, the terminal head-
land towards the east.
The Pampas
According to local usage the term pampa, meaning
any open level tract, is restricted to the treeless,
grassy plains which occupy most of the space between
the Rios Salado and Negro north and south, and
stretch from the Andean plateau eastwards to the Lower
Parana and beyond the Plate estuary to the Atlantic
seaboard. From the pampas proper are therefore
excluded the northern regions of Entre Rios between
the Parana and the Uruguay, and Gran Chaco between
the Salado and the Bolivian and Paraguayan frontiers.
Although these extensive tracts stand at much about
the same levels as the rest of the Argentine lowlands, —
generally under 500 feet above the sea, — and un-
doubtedly formed part of the old marine basin, they still
present certain distinctive features which justify the
popular usage. Lying much nearer to the Tropics,
they enjoy a warmer and moister climate than the true
pampas, and are traversed in various directions by large
perennial streams, while herbaceous growths are largely
replaced in Gran Chaco by thorny scrub, palm-groves,
and even dense arboreal vegetation.
Very different is the general, but by no means
uniform, aspect of the pampas, which in the north are
diversified with stagnant saline basins glittering in the
sun, and farther south present a boundless expanse of
tall grasses changing with the seasons, and heaving like
a billowy sea with every breath of wind. Their appear-
ance at dawn in the summer months has been pictured
340 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
by Sir Horace Kumbold in vivid language : " No words
can convey an adequate idea of the beauty and freshness
of the prairie at this early hour. The young sun floods
the low and perfectly level horizon with a flush of pink
and yellow light. At once you realise the fuH force of
the hackneyed image, which compares the boundless
expanse to an ocean solitude, for the effect is truly that
of sunrise out upon the face of the waste of waters. The
fiery disk emerges out of what seems a sea of verdure,
all burned and brown though everything be in reality,
and in its slanting rays the tip of each blade of grass,
the giant thistles with their rose-purple crowns, the
graceful floss-like panicles of the pampas grass, just
touched by the breeze and all glittering with dew,
undulate before the eye, like the successive sparkling
lines that mark the hazy roll of the deep in the dawn
of a tropical calm. This tender tonality lasts but a
very short time, the sun shooting upwards with a speed
and force that at once completely transforms the picture ;
the scorching agencies of light revealing it in its true
parched colours, and reducing it to a burning arch above,
and a scorching and featureless flat below. The fresh
rippling ocean turns into a weary wilderness, staring up
at a breathless, pitiless sky." •"
Marvellously varied are the feelings experienced in
this wilderness by the wanderer who is at all alive to
the grandeur of nature, or endowed with the least poetic
fancy. Sublime appears to him the vast expanse of this
seemingly interminable ocean of grass and flowers, while
the solemn stillness, broken only by the occasional cry
of a bird or the roar of the jaguar, bears him away from
mother earth to the far-off, unknown, and dimly-realised
sphere of some other and more ethereal region. In the
^ The Ch-eat Silver River, p. 273.
AEGENTINA 341
presence of such an awe-inspiring solitude his thoughts
are unconsciously drawn to dwell upon the idea of
eternity ; a deep and yet a pleasant sadness takes pos-
session of the thoughtful mind, a feeling intensified at
the going down of the sun, and in the darkness of night
merging in an overpowering sense of helplessness and
terror. Many who, after realising a fortune, have re-
turned to Europe, are often again seized with an irresist-
ible yearning for these dreary wastes, and, carried away by
a veritable home-sickness, have given up everything in
the old land in order to begin life afresh in the pampas.
Nor is it the beauties of nature in a landscape of
such monotony that awaken a love of these treeless
plains, although the traveller may often be arrested in
mute amazement at some fascinating but evanescent
picture. Atmospheric effects, seldom missing on bright
days, will suddenly transform a distant thistle-field to a
forest of the finest timber, while the grass sprouting
round a dreary marsh assumes the appearance of a
numerous troop of phantom horsemen. But most fre-
quent are the mirages. The wayfarer is mocked by the
sight of a watery expanse sparkling in the sun, and
when, perhaps tormented with a burning thirst, he
gallops forward, he finds the vision still receding in the
distance. Experienced residents are doubtless not de-
ceived by such phenomena, but their knowledge is due,
not so much to their own better judgment as to the
indifference of their horses, who are never the dupes of
these fallacious appearances.
The Patagonian Plateau
Southwards the Argentine pampas gradually merge
in the Patagonian steppe, which occupies the whole
342 CO.MPEXDIUxM OF GEOGKAPHY AXD TKAVEL
region between the Andean uplands and the Atlantic,
and extends beyond Magellan Strait into East Fuegia.
As shown by the river valleys, it is inclined gently
eastwards, and like the pampas is disposed at different
levels, with an inner zone ranging in terraces from 2000
to 500 feet (the plateau), and an outer falling from
500 feet to sea-level (the seaboard).
The plateau region presents some remarkable features,
the explanation of which has given rise to nuich discus-
sion amongst geologists. The whole land, evidently of
Tertiary formation, is strewn with thick horizontal layers
of rolled shingle down to a depth of 50 feet for a dis-
tance of 600 miles north and south and 200 east and
west. The layers consist chiefly of porphyries, recent
igneous rocks, and metamorphic slates, and in the lacus-
trine deposits, composed of sand and volcanic tuffs, are
embedded great quantities of animal remains, and the
question is, whence came these prodigious masses of
tjravels, which extend even under the Atlantic waters at
least as far as the Falkland Islands, The only possible
answer seems to be that they are due to the same
atmospheric agencies which have reduced the Brazilian
and Yentana uplands by many thousands of feet, and
of the Patagonian pre-Cordilleras.have left nothing but
a few fragments still scattered over the western plains.
Much of the debris was, no doubt, contributed by glacial
action, its horizontal or slightly inclined position sug-
gestincr that the moraines and other detritus were
originally deposited in the Atlantic waters, which at
that time must have covered a great part of the steppe.
The glacial period must therefore have been followed
by the phenomenon of upheaval, or else of subsidence of
the sea, of which unmistakable indications have in fact
been discovered. Near Possession Bay, at the eastern
ARGENTINA 34o
entrance of Magellan Strait, a lagoon standing 160 feet
above the present sea-level is still inhabited by shell-fish
of the same species as those in the surrounding waters,
and reference has already been made to some very old
kitchen-middens which, since their formation, have been
raised to a considerable height above their former level.
In this connection it should be mentioned that amongst
the animal remains were the skulls and other bones of
men of a low type. But they were found, not in the
tableland gravels, but in the more recent clays of the
Eio Negro valley.
Besides the gravels, extensive tracts are covered with
shifting dunes of coarse sand, and also with fine sand,
which have been carried by the winds to great distances.
They cover vast spaces, especially in the Colorado and
Negro basins, stretching at some points right across the
Continent from the Andean foothills, where they appear
to have originated. They are certainly not of marine
origin, but seem to be derived from the immense
quantities of debris deposited by the glaciers of the Ice
Age in the form of moraines at the entrance of the upland
valleys.
Despite their more dreary and monotonous aspect, the
Patagonian plains have much the same fascination for
travellers as the Argentine pampas. Darwin, who felt
the impression years after his visit to this region, asks,
why have these arid wastes taken so firm possession of
his mind ? "I can scarcely analyse these feelings, but
it must be partly owing to the free scope given to the
imagination. The plains of Patagonia are boundless, for
they are scarcely practicable, and hence unknown. They
bear the stamp of having lasted for ages, and there
appears no limit to their duration through future time."^
1 Voyage of the Beagle.
344 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Mr. W. H. Hudson also found the old charm long
surviving in all its freshness. " After all the discomforts
and sufferings endured in a desert cursed with eternal
barrenness, the returned traveller finds in after years
that it still keeps its hold on him, that it shines brighter
in memory and is dearer to him than any other region
he may have visited. In Patagonia the monotony of
the plains, or expanse of low hills, the universal unre-
lieved grayness of everything, and the absence of animal
forms and objects new to the eye, leave the mind open
and free to receive an impression of visible nature as a
whole. One gazes on the prospect as on the sea, for it
stretches away, sea-like, without change, into infinitude ;
but without the sparkle of water, the changes of hue
which shadows and sunlight and nearness and distance
give, and motions of waves and white flashes of foam.
It has a look of antiquity, of desolation, of eternal peace,
of a desert that has been a desert from of old, and will
continue a desert for ever." -^
Hydrography — The Parana-Uruguay Basin and Delta
Apart from a few closed lacustrine basins in the
pampas and South-West Patagonia, the whole of Argentina
drains mainly in a south-easterly direction to the
Atlantic. In Argentina proper nearly all the running
waters find their way either through the Parana or the
Uruguay to the Plate estuary, or through the Colorado
and the Negro directly to the coast. But in Patagonia,
where the Continent contracts to relatively narrow
limits, and increases in aridity southwards, no large
fluvial systems are developed, and the comparatively
slight discharge is effected through the Chubut, the
1 Idle Days in Patagonia.
ARGENTINA
;4o
Santa Cruz, the Gallegos, and a few other independent
coast-streams. Even in the Colorado basin many of the
affluents are intermittent, or else run out in saline
marshes or lagoons without reaching the main channel
at all. In a word, the collective volume of all the other
Argento - Patagonian rivers is almost a negligil3le
RIO SANTA CKUZ.
quantity compared with that of the mighty I'arana-
Uruguay system, with a catchment basin of 1,200,000
square miles, and a mean discharge of 535,000 cubic
feet per second.
But not more than al)out one lialf of this basin
is comprised within the Argentine State, where the
Uruguay is entirely a frontier river, while some of the
western affluents flow in their upper courses through
346 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Bolivian territory. The Parana itself does not belong
altogether to Argentina until it is joined at the Tres
Bocas near Corrientes by its great tributary, the
Paraguay, from the north. Below the confluence the
discharge is greater than at the head of the Plate
estuary, the contributions received from the feeble
pampas affluents during its lower course being insufficient
to compensate for the loss by evaporation. Nevertheless
these affluents have the effect of greatly widening the
fluvial bed, which expands to a breadth of 40 miles
during the floods in the vast Parana -Uruguay delta
above Buenos Ayres. Formerly this deltaic region
formed part of the marine gulf, which penetrated nearly
300 miles farther inland than at present. The tides
even still ascend both the Parana and the Uruguay for
a distance of nearly 100 miles ; but the fluvial siltings
have gradually filled in the broad marine channel all the
way from the present head of the estuary to Diamante,
where the lower course of the Parana bends round from
south to east.
A short distance above the mouth of the main channel
the monotony of the surrounding treeless flats is relieved
by the exuberant vegetation of Delta Island, where
whole forests of peach trees are in full bloom in the
month of August, and where the seiha also {Erythrina
cristagalli) unfolds its gorgeous blossom. These islands
of the delta are formed of extremely fertile alluvial
deposits, which is often accumulated high above the
periodical floodings. Many are swept Ijodily away by
the current and reformed lower down, so that the
navigable channels are constantly shifting. But the
main branch, known as the Parana de las Palmas, is
accessible to large vessels even in August, when the
water is lowest. Besides this branch, the delta is inter-
AKGENTINA 347
sected by several other large arms, and the Parana has
altogether as many as fourteen mouths, all subject to
periodical inundations.
The Eios Bermejo and Salado
South of the Mio Corrientes, which partly drains tlie
shallow and sliifting Ibera lagoon, the Parana is joined
on its left bank by only one notable affluent, the
Guahrjuay, which winds through the province of Entre-
Kios nearly parallel both with the main stream and the
Lower Uruguay. After a sluggish course of about 250
miles through this Argentine " Mesopotamia," the
Gualeguay falls, not into the Parana itself, but into the
Favon, one of those lateral channels which are inter-
mittently flushed by the Parana flood waters in the
region of the delta.
On its right bank the Paraguay, which is here the
frontier river towards the State named from it, receives
the already described Pilcommjo and the Bermejo
( Vermejo), both rising in the Bolivian Cordilleras, and
both winding for hundreds of miles in a parallel south-
easterly direction through the Argentine territory of
Gran Chaco. The Bermejo, which in its main features
greatly resembles the Pilcomayo, has a total length of
1300 miles, but is of little use for any practical purposes.
Below Oran it is joined by the San Francisco, a stream
of equal size, which drains the province of Jujuy, and
although both are accessible to light craft above the
confluence, the main stream lower down is so obstructed
by shoals and reefs, that it is scarcely navigable even by
the few flat-bottomed boats that ply on the lower reaches.
In this part of its course the fall is so slight that the
current is continuallv wandering- right and left into side
348 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
branches and shallow lagoons, and about the year 1850
the whole river shifted its bed some 12 miles farther
north to the Bio Tmco. The old channel is now dry,
and the Teuco enters the Paraguay through two arms
at Puerto Bermejo opposite Villa del Pilar.
Below the Paraguay confluence the Parana receives
on its right bank only one perennial stream, the Rio
Salado, often called the Rio del Juramento (" Eiver of
the Oath "), because it was on its banks that Belgrano's
army swore to achieve the independence of the country
or perish in the attempt. The Salado, which draws its
farthest supplies from the ISTevados de Cachi, is known
in its upper course as the Rio Guachipas, and lower
down as the Rio del Pasaje, where it is crossed by the
main route between Tucuman and Salta.
In its meandering course through Gran Chaco, where
the current is scarcely perceptible, it overflows into a
labyrinth of lateral branches, backwaters, and shallow
lagoons, which during the floods are all merged in a
great fresh-water lake. But after the subsidence the
water in its lower reaches becomes somewhat brackish ;
hence this sluggish stream here takes the name of the
Salado or " Salt Ptiver," which it retains to its confluence
with the Parana at Santa Pe above Eosario.
The Rio Dulce and the Cordoba Affluents
South of the Salado the Pampean plains are inter-
sected by numerous watercourses, the direction of whose
valleys shows that they belong to the Parana fluvial
system. But they seem for the most part to be feeble
survivals from a former more vigorous period in the life
history of the great artery. "With the steadily increasing
dryness of the climate, their volume has continued to
aeCtENtina 349
fall away to such an extent that one or two have become
intermittent tributaries, reaching the main stream only
during the floods, while all the others have long given
up the struggle to attain their natural goal, and die out
in the marshy depressions or shallow lagoons dotted over
the grassy steppe lauds.
Even the Rio Dulce, which has the largest catchment
basin, including both the Salta uplands and the Acon-
quija heights, ramifies in numerous shifting channels
aimlessly over the plains, and at last runs out in the
Porongos morass, which during the inundations becomes
a temporary lake communicating southwards with the
Mar Chiquita (" Little Sea "), a real lake in places over
100 feet deep between the Sierra de Cordoba and the
Lower Salado.
From the Cordoba and San Luiz heights descend five
torrents, which are rather numbered than named, in
their order from north to south, the Mios Frimero, Segundo,
Tercero, Cuarto, and Quinto (" First," " Second," " Third,"
" Fourth " and " Fifth "). These also for the most part
run out in the Saladillo lagoons and other saline
depressions, so that the Parana receives no contributions
from all these affluents except through the Carcarana
{Car car anal), which is formed by the junction of the
Terceiro and Cuarto at Saladillo, and reaches the main
stream a little north of Eosario.
The Lower Parana and the Plate Estuary
. Nevertheless the Parana has survived all these losses,
and between the Paraguay confluence and the Plate estu-
ary still remains one of the great rivers of the world,
navigable by large deep-sea vessels for a total distance of
1200 or 1300 miles.
350 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
The section between Santa Fe and Eosario has a total
breadth of 25 or 30 miles, not, however, flowing in a
continuous stream, but between countless elongated
islands, forming an intricate network of channels and
riachos, or " little rivers," some of which are over two
miles wide. These secondary branches wind away
tortuously amid the impenetrable stretches of jungle,
developing a trackless system of waterways continu-
ally breaking away from and again uniting with
the main arteries. " This will give some idea of
the magnitude of this stvipendous Parana, with its
myriad shifting isles drifting on to fill up channel
here, swell promontory there, till they compel the
waters to force out new passages through the great
alluvial wilderness." ^
The estuary, the Bio de la Plata, formed by the junc-
tion of the Parana with the Uruguay, and 6 2 miles wide
at Monte Video, discharges more water into the ocean
than any other river in the New World, the Amazons
alone excepted. During the floods the volume rolled
down by the Parana is estimated at 1,650,000 cubic feet
per second, while the Uruguay contributes 500,000,
making a total of 2,150,000. As this immense body of
water is heavily charged with sedimentary matter, the
silting process, which has already reduced the marine
inlet to less than half its former size, is still in progress.
The mean depth at Monte Video is already reduced to
less than 15 feet, and constant dredging is needed to
enable large vessels to approach the quays of Buenos
Ayres. Shoals and quicksands are everywhere forming
and reforming at a rapid rate, and the time is approaching
when the "Great Silver Eiver," at present about 5000
square miles in extent, with a mean width of 35 or 40
' E. F. Knight, Cruise of the Falcon, vol. ii. p. 34.
ARGENTINA 351
miles, mvist be reduced to a single narrow channel winding
between low muddy banks to the ocean.
The Upper and Lower Colorado Basins
In South Argentina the deterioration of the climate
in the direction of excessive dryness has resulted in a
curious hydrographic phenomenon, which seems best
indicated by the term disintegration. The vast Colorado
basin, which must have formerly comprised an area of
probably over 200,000 square miles, has been broken up in
such a way as to form two absolutely independent systems
— an extensive lacustrine region in the north, with no
present seaward outlet, and in the south the Rio Colorado
itself, reduced to about an eighth of its former basin, but
still flowing in a perennial and tolerably copious stream
to the Atlantic between the Plate and Negro rivers.
The closed lacustrine system, which has long ceased
to communicate at any point with the lower (Eio Colorado)
section, covers a great part of the provinces of San Juan
and Mendoza, with the western half of the Pampa terri-
tory. In the extreme north the large lakes known as
the Lagunas de Guanacache, which are intermittently fed
by the Rio San Juan and the western Rio Bermejo,
send their overflow through the Rio Desagiiadero to
Lake Behedero (the " Drinker "), so called because it acts
like a sponge in absorbing the surface waters of all the
surrounding saline marshy tracts. Then this shallow
lagoon, which expands and shrinks from season to season,
communicates during the floods through another desa-
guadero, called also a Rio Salado, with the broad but
shallow Lake Urre-Lafquen, that is, the Laguna Amarga
(" Bitter Lagoon "), so named from the intense salinity of
its waters.
352 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
During its rambling course over the plains the Salaiio
receives irregular supplies on its right bank through
the Pdos Diamante and Atuel, which descend from the
Argento-Chilian Cordillera south of Tupungato. But
the stream which formerly reached the Bebedero from
Aconcagua has ceased to flow, and there are other indica-
tions, such as the increasing saline efflorescences about
the margins of the lagoons, that the process of desiccation
is still in progress throughout the whole of this lacustrine
region.
Traces only remain of the channel, through which
the Laguna Amarga formerly found an outlet through
the Colorado to the Atlantic, and this river is thus now
completely separated from the chain of shallow lagoons,
desaguaderos, swamps, and saline depressions, which at
one time constituted by far the larger part of its upper
basin. At present the Colorado valley is confined to a
relatively narrow strip of the pampas between the parallel
of the Laguna Amarga and the Kio Negro, the main stream
being formed by the confluence of the Rio Grande and
the Rio cle Barrancas, which have tlieir sources on the
eastern slopes of the Cordillera near the Peteroa volcano.
Although receiving no tributaries in its course through
the parched pampean plains, where no rain falls for years,
it never runs dry, while in summer it is swollen by the
melting snows of the Andes to a deep and rapid stream
of great volume from 300 to 400 yards wide.
The Patagonian Rivers and Lacustrine Basins
The Rio Negro, which forms the divide between
Argentina proper and Patagonia, traverses the steppe in
a valley nearly parallel to that of the Colorada. Like
its neighbour, it maintains a perennial current witlK)ut
ARGENTINA 353
receiving any supplies throughout its lower course to the
Atlantic near the Gulf of San Matias. The Kio Negro,
or Curru Levfu, i.e. " Blackwater," said to be so named
not from its colour, which in fact is sea-green, but from
the dangerous reefs obstructing its navigation, is formed
by the convergence of two main branches, the Neuqtien,
flowing from Lake Mallarco near the Chilian volcano
7000 feet above sea-level, and the Rio Limay {Limay
Leufu), which has its source in the romantic Lake
NahuelMiapi, the loveliest fresh-water basin in Patagonia.
Formerly supposed to be 50 miles long, it has been
reduced by the observations of Moreno to about 40,
with an extreme breadth of 9 or 10 miles. But
nothing can diminish the impression produced by its
pure crystalline waters, in which are reflected the
surrounding heights — the bold headlands of its indented
shores, above which rise bare, rugged crags, or beach
and pine-clad granite peaks, with lofty, snow-white
crests closing in the background.
Nahuelhuapi is but one amongst many upland Pata-
gonian lakes, which correspond with those of South Chili
on the opposite side of the Great Andes. All alike are
of tectonic and glacial origin, and may be described as
flooded basins formed by the grinding action of the
great glaciers, which, during the Ice Age, descended far
lower than at present, and supplied most of the gravels
now strewn over the Patagonian steppe.
These lacustrine basins, some land-locked, some with
outlets to the steppe rivers, some already silted up, are
far more numerous than was formerly supposed. During
his exploration of the Argentine Cordilleras in 1894-96,
Dr. F. P. Moreno discovered eight new lakes north of,
and no less than fifteen south of, JSTahuelhuapi, and also
for the first time surveyed the mysterious Rio F'talenfu,
VOL. I 2 a
AKGEXTIXA 355
which was found to be in some places over 25 feet deep.
The beauty and fertility of the whole district are described
in glowing language, and a great future is anticipated for
these romantic and salubrious uplands, as soon as they
are made accessible to settlers by a railway with the east
coast.^
Although the current of the Limay is swift, it is
unobstructed by any reefs or rapids, so that at high
water steamers of powerful build might ascend from the
Atlantic nearly all the way to Lake Xahuelhuapi, a total
distance of nearly 600 miles. Thanks to the picturesque
aspect of the surroundings, the ever-flowing stream, broad
as the Thames at Westminster, seems to have a magnetic
attraction for travellers analogous to that of the wavino-
pampas plains themselves.
Nor is the prospect everywhere so monotonous as
might be supposed. At El Carmen, La Merced ( Viedma),
and some other settlements along its lower reaches, human
industry has transformed the uniform character of the
landscape, and Mr. Hudson declares that, when he first
sighted the Eio Negro, " never river seemed fairer to look
upon, extending away on either hand until it melted and
was lost in the blue horizon, its low shores clothed in all
the glory of groves and fruit orchards, and vineyards and
fields of ripening maize. Far out in the middle of the
swift current floated flocks of black-necked swans, their
white plumage shining like foam in the sunlight ; while
just beneath us, scarcely a stone's throw off, stood the
thatched farmhouse of our conductor, the smoke curling
up peacefully from the kitchen chimney. A grove of
large old cherry-trees, in which the house was em-
bowered, added to the charm of the picture, and as
w^e rode down to the gate we noticed the fully ripe
^ Geogr. Jour., November 1896, ji. 578.
356
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TPvAYEL
cherries glowing like live coals amid the deep green
foliage." -^
South of the Negro follow at long intervals a few
other steppe streams — the Clmltit or Chulilao, the Desire,
the Santa Cruz, and the Gallegos — all presenting much
AXCIENT EASTEUX OUTLET OF LAKE SAN MARTIN.
the same general features, in which is revealed their life
history. Eising with several head branches on the slopes
of the Cordillera, they receive all their supplies from the
Andean snow-fields and the upland lakes of glacial origin,
and, with one or two exceptions, are joined l)y no aftluents
1 Idle Days, p. 1 7.
ARGENTINA
357
during their parallel easterly course across the Patagoniau
plains to the Atlantic.
Of the lacustrine reservoirs, which send their overflow
to these steppe rivers, the more important are lakes
Musters, traversed by the Hio Senguerr, chief southern
head-stream of the Chubut ; Coluhiiape, a feeder of the
LAKE ARGENTINO.
Desire (Eio Deseado), which was so named by its dis-
coverer. Cavendish, in 1586 ; lastly, the three lakes Smi
"Martin, Argentina, and Viedma, and perhaps others, all
belonging now or formerly to the Santa Cruz basin.
Viedma, so named by Moreno in 1877 from its
discoverer, Antonio de Viedma, in 1782, is, next to
Lake Buenos Ay res, the largest of all the Patagonia n
lakes, being still 50 miles long with a mean breadth of
358 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPtAVEL
10 to 12 miles. Traces of several raised beaches show
that it was formerly a much larger basin, and at that
time communicated through the Bio Leona direct with
the Eio Santa Cruz. But at present this emissary flows
south to the smaller Lake Argentino which drains to
the Santa Cruz.
Argentino, discovered in 1868 by Gardiner, also at
one time stood at a much higher level than at present.
Yet, like all these glacial tarns, it is still extremely deep,
Moreno having taken soundings of 120 feet near the
margin. Fed by so many lacustrine reservoirs, the
Santa Cruz is the most copious of all the Patagonian
rivers, with a volume estimated at 30,000 cubic feet per
second. It enters the Atlantic below Port San Julian
through a long fjord-like estuary, where it is joined by
the Rio Chico from the north-west.
The Magellanic Lakes
Argentino is followed southwards by another basin
standing apparently at the same level of about 300 feet
above the sea. But although the exploration of this
lacustrine region is still far from complete, Moreno has
shown that there are at present no southern extensions
of Lake Argentino. Nor is the region between South-
West Patagonia and the Magellanic lands so difficult
as it has been described by Otto Nordenskjold, who
traversed it in 1895-96, probably in rainy weather. A
tract only 10 miles wide, which he tells us his part;f
took three days to traverse on horseback,-^ was covered
by Moreno's party in a few hours in 1897 and 1898.
In this transitional zone between the mainland and
North - West Fuegia the Swedish explorer describes a
1 Geog. Jonrn., October 1897, p. 404.
ARGENTINA
;!59
group of upland lakes, which extend from near Peel Inlet
to about the headwaters of tlie Rio Gallegos, and are
completely separated from the Yiedma-Argentino Ijasins
by the Balueles Mountains. They receive the drainage of
this range and of the Latorre escarpments ^ through the
THE COllDILLON OF THE ANDES AT LAST HOPE INLET.
Mio Viscachas from the east, and have no connection
with the Gallegos valley, but send their overflow through
an unnamed emissary to the head of Last Hcype Inlet,
northernmost of the Fuegian cliannels.
' Tliese escarpments have been wrongly described by some observers
as "mountains." The "Lahore range" has no existence, the line of
cliffs so named being merely the south-western edge of the Patagonian
plateau north of the Gallegos valley (Moreno).
360 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
The first link in the chain is Lake Dickson, north of
Mount Payne, and the last Lake Maravilla, about 70
square miles in extent. Lake Sarmiento, the second
largest member of the group (26 square miles), has no
known outlet, but probably also drains to Maravilla.
Everywhere in this region the indications of former
glaciation on a vast scale are still in evidence, and Nor-
denskjold's observations are in complete harmony with
the conclusions of other explorers on the morainic origin
of the Pataf^onian ^ravels.
Climate
Excluding the vertical zones, superimposed in rapid
succession on the steep eastern slopes of the Cordilleras,
Argentina, although stretching across thirty degrees of
latitude, presents a certain uniformity in its main climatic
conditions. This uniformity is determined, broadly
speaking, by the two elements of heat and dryness pre-
vailing in varying proportions over the whole region.
But although the transitions are everywhere slight,
being marked by increasing dryness and diminishing
heat in the direction of the south, the results become
accumulative when spread over such a vast area. Hence
Patagonia, despite its perennial streams accounted for by
local conditions, is at once more arid as well as colder
than the central provinces, while these are in their turn
distinctly drier, though not perhaps perceptiljly cooler,
than the Gran Chaco territory in the far Xorth. But
heat and dryness, where neither is excessive, are the
normal constituents of a salubrious climate, from which
it follows tliat the central provinces between the Cordoba
heights and the Plate estuary are both relatively and
absolutely the most favoured region in this respect.
ARGENTINA
161
and in everj way the most suitable for European
settlement.
These inferences, which are of such vital importance
for the future prospects of Argentina, may be regarded
as fairly well established, and are fully borne out by the
meteorological records from all parts of the country, as
in the appended comparative table of temperatures and
rainfall : —
Towns,
Latitude.
Mean Temp.
Max.
Temp.
Rainfall
Ushwiya "\
(Fuegia) /
. 54° 53'
42° Fahr.
81°
Fahr.
120 in.
Bahia Blanca )
(Patagonia) J
Buenos Ayres
. 38° 45'
. 34° 36'
60° ,,
64" ,,
105°
100°
"
19 „
34 ,,
San Luiz
. 33° 18'
61° ,,
103°
,,
24 ,:
Rosario
. 32'^ 56'
63° „
101°
,,
40,,
Mendoza
. 32- 53'
60° ,,
100°
,,
6 ,,
San Juan .
. 31° 32'
65° ,,
108°
,,
3,,
Cordoba
. 31° 25'
61° ,,
111°
,,
26 ,,
La Rioja
Catamarca .
. 29° 26'
. 28° 28'
67° ,,
69° ,,
109°
109°
12 ,,
10 ,,
Santiago del Estero
. 27° 48'
70° ,,
113°
,,
19 ,,
Tucuman .
. 26° 50'
68° ,,
104°
,,
31) „
Salta .
. 24° 46'
63° ,,
109°
,,
23 „
Here the general uniformity, as well as the gradual
transitions, are well shown in the column of mean
temperatures, confined, except in Fuegia, to the narrow
range of 60° to 70° Fahr.; and in the rainfall nowhere
exceeding 40 inches, though owing to local causes ex-
ceptionally falling very low in the Mendoza and San
Juan districts. On the other hand, the column of
maximum temperature indicates almost everywhere a
high degree of summer heat, and this is unquestionably
the most unfavourable feature of the Argentine climate.
But the picture is not nearly so dark as it looks, being
relieved both by the generally short duration of the
intense heats and by the dryness of the atmosphere.
362 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
wliich renders them far less oppressive than they other-
wise would be. Kesidents in tropical lands often feel
the heat of the torrid zone less irksome than the relatively
cooler but more humid summer of the British Isles.
But Argentina is not an earthly Paradise, and serious
disturbing elements are the occasional long droughts and
the equatorial and antarctic gales, for which there is
ample scope in a region unobstructed for over 2000 miles
by any barriers higher than the Ventana and Cordoba
ranges. The much-dreaded northern zonda blows with
great fury during the winter months from July to
September, sometimes causing the glass to rise and fall
as much us 50° Fahr. in a few hours. Farther south
the seaboard is exposed to the equally tempestuous south-
east trades, the so-called suestadas, which prevail for a
great part of the year in the Plate region, strewing the
estuary with wreckage and stemming the currents of the
Eios Parana and Uruguay until they overflow their
banks far inland. These trades are to be distinguished
from the scarcely less boisterous pcmperos, or pamj)as
winds, which set in the direction from south-west to
north-east, and are at times felt on the Brazilian coast-
lands.
These pamperos burst at times with great violence over
the plains, at first hot as a furnace blast while driving
back the fiery equatorial north winds, then suddenly
growing cool and moist like the south-westers in the
English Channel. They appear to set up those peculiar
electric conditions in the atmosphere, to which has been
attributed the so-called aire or "air-stroke," a strange
kind of paralysis which constantly accompanies them, and
attacks both natives and foreigners alike : perhaps twist-
ing up a corner of the mouth, or half-closing one eye, or
causing a sudden swelling of the neck. These unpleasant
APtGENTINA 363
symptoms, for which sulphur externally applied is said
to be a specific, but which may even prove fatal, seem to
be really caused by an electric discharge, " for there are
authentic cases of two men sitting together being simul-
taneously seized by this strange and invisible enemy, the
one being killed on the spot as by lightning, and the
other paralysed in some limb." ^
At times the droughts last for years, with results
disastrous enough to affect the economic conditions of
the land. Thus in the province of Buenos Ayres scarcely
any rain fell for the five years ending in 1831, and
during this gran seca, " great drought," nearly all the
live-stock was swept away, and the herbaceous vegetation
burnt out of the ground. Some of the western provinces,
especially San Juan and Mendoza, might almost be in-
cluded in the rainless zone. But here the torrents
which feed the irrigation rills draw their supplies from
the melting snows of the Cordillera, while the inexhaust-
ible underground reservoirs have been tapped by Artesian
wells to depths of 300 or 400 feet. Xevertheless the
indications of increasing dryness cannot be ignored, and
men of science are already engaged on the problem, how-
to prevent a great part of Argentina from gradually
sinking to the hopelessly arid condition of the Patagonian
tableland.
Flora
In Argentina are distinguished three vegetable zones,
which may be roughly described as arboreal, herliaceous,
and scrubby. The arboreal finds its greatest development
in the Gran Chaco woodlands, but is by no means con-
fined to that region. Wooded tracts also occur in the
provinces of Corrientes and Entre-Piios between the
^ Cruise of the Falcon, vol. ii. p. 81.
364 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
Parana and Uruguay rivers, while narrow bands of forest
growths, continuing the Peruvian and Bolivian inontana
southwards, extend along the lower slopes of the Cordillera
in the provinces of Salta, Jujuy, and Tucuman, and at
intervals all the way to the lacustrine region of South-
West Patagonia.
Here flourish both the Antarctic beech and the
Chilian peliuen (Araucaria imbricata), and the European
apple-tree, which was introduced by the Jesuits, and has
found a congenial home on the eastern slopes of the
Cordillera. The vegetation is here also diversified by
a tolerably rich growth of aromatic plants, such as the
'•' incense tree," yielding a valuable resin, the maki, also
resinous, the " Santa Cruz tea," from which is made an
infusion with a strong flavour of mint, and the herberis
bunifolia, which ranges down to the sand-hills and
supplies the natives with immense quantities of edible
berries.
Perhaps the most conspicuous plant in Gran Chaeo
is the wax-palm {Cuperiiicia cerifcra), one of the ten or
twelve members of the palm family which are found in
Argentina. But more wide-spread is the algcvrroba
{Prosopis), a kind of mimosa like the carob, which has an
immense range, and is of considerable economic value to
the natives. There are two varieties, — " the white, which
bears shelled fruit resembling our white bean in colour
and size, affording an excellent beverage, and could yield
flour also ; and the black -bearing shelled fruit like our
bread bean, and yielding an inferior drink, but a most
excellent and abundant flour, with which they make
a bread called imtai by a peculiar and, according
to our notions, repulsive process." ^ The bread, some-
what like pounded chestnut, is very nutritious, and
^ G. Pelleschi, Eight Months on the Gran Chaco, p. 70.
ARGENTINA 365
this valuable tree also supplies an excellent building
material.
Other useful plants are the vinal, from which is
made a kind of chich a, or fermented drink ; the pacard,
a tree of great size and beauty belonging to the mimosa
family, the fruit of which contains a large percent-
age of saponine ; the urimclay, la'pacho, quebracho, and
palo-sanio, all close-grained and useful either for building
or fine cabinet-work.
The pampas flora, mainly herbaceous, is characterised
by great uniformity, resulting from the wide range of a
very limited number of species. Amongst these the
most characteristic is the so-called " pampas grass "
{gynerium argenteum), which is, however, mostly confined
to the humid depressions about the Patagonian frontier,
and to the uplands, where moisture is derived from the
melting snows. It does not thrive on the dry soil of
the pampas proper, which are mainly covered with two
kinds of herbage, the 2^'^^sio tierno and i^f^sto duro, that
is, soft and coarse grasses, suitable the one for sheep, the
other for horses, both for cattle. Here extensive tracts
have been invaded by several varieties of the European
thistle, which need little moisture, and in some places
have already formed impenetrable thickets. " In most
places the rich, dry soil is occupied by a coarse grass,
three or four feet high, growing in large tussocks, and
all the year round of a deep green. A few slender herbs
and trefoils, with long twining stems, maintain a frail
existence among the tussocks ; but the strong grass
crowds out most plants, and scarcely a flower relieves its
uniform everlasting verdure. There are patches, some-
times large areas, where it does not grow, and these are
carpeted by small creeping herbs of a livelier green, and
are gay in spring with flowers, chiefly of the composite
366 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
aud papilionaceous kinds ; and verbenas, scarlet, purple,
rose and white. On moist or marshy grounds there are
also several lilies, yellow, white and red, two or three
flags, and various other small flowers. But altogether
the flora of the pampas is the poorest in species of any
fertile district on the globe." ^
In the third or scrubby zone, comprising the Pata-
gonian lowlands, the scanty vegetation is nowhere
continuous, except here and there along the river-banks.
It consists chiefly of tufty grass and herbs growing-
round about the stems of thorny bushes. A prevailing-
form in the Negro valley is the chanar, " a tree in form,
but scarcely more than a bush in size. In late October
it bears a profusion of flowers in clusters, in shape, size,
and brilliant yellow colour resembling the flower of the
broom." -
Here also grows the willow, probably introduced from
Europe, but now " a large tree of a century's majestic
growth, forming a suitable perch and lookout for the
harpy and gray eagles common in the valley, and the
still more common vultures and polybori, and of the
high-roosting, noble black-faced ibis ; a home and house,
too, of the Magellanic eagle-owl and the spotted wild
cat ; and where even the puma could lie at ease on a
horizontal branch thirty or forty feet above the earth "
(ib.). Another growth of this arid region is the herba-
ceous evening primrose {Enothera hiennis), now- a familiar
object in English gardens. In Argentina it has a wide
range, occurring not only in the Xegro valley but also in
the Buenos Ayres district and as far north as the Eio
Salado, everywhere adapting itself to the different con-
ditions of soil and climate. In some places only a few
^ \\' . H. Hudson, The Naturalist in La Plata, p. 56.
- Idle Days in Patagonia, p, 50.
AEGENTINA 367
inches high, with flowers no bigger than butter-cups, in
others it grows tall and rank, five or six feet high, with
large flowers emitting only a faint perfume, while else-
where it is a tall, slender plant, " grass-like among the
tall grasses, with wide open flowers about an inch in
diameter, and not more than two or three on each plant "
(ib. p. 239).
On the salt plains in the Upper Colorado basin little
is seen except thorny shrubs, whose very leaves have a
saline flavour, and huge cacti, which grow here to a
larger size than elsewhere. At a distance they look
like enormous candelabra, the outstretched arms branch-
ing off at right angles from the stem and then throwing
off minor branchlets also at right angles, the whole
armed with sharp thorns 6 or 7 inches long.
Scenery of Gran Chaco
What may be called the sociable character of the
Argentine flora, that is, the tendency of certain species
to herd together in large masses to the exclusion of all
rivals, is conspicuous especially in the Gran Chaco, where
whole districts take their name from the dominant forms.
Thus we have in one place the so-called palmares, where
little is seen except boundless forests of palms; in
another the algarrobales ; elsewhere the chanarales, or the
vinalares of the tracts exposed to periodical floods.
Whole forests are also met with of the gnayac tree {Palo
santo), and in many parts the vegetation is wonderfully
rich and luxuriant. So exuberant are the tropical
growths that it becomes difficult to understand how so
limited an area can produce and sustain such dense
masses of plants and trees. And, in truth, the ground
itself is insufficient for all its offspring. The stems of
368 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the trees have to support the most varied kinds of
climbers and creepers, which coil round them with a
marvellously-shaded mantle of green profusely decked
with flowers of every hue. The traveller wanders for
days together beneath the shade of these natural bowers,
through which glimpses are rarely caught of the over-
hanging azure sky.
And if the day with all its glories is so indescribably
attractive to the lover of nature, the marvellous nights
of these regions still reserve fresh and unexpected charm&
for him. There is nothing comparable to the impression
of serene repose inspired by the sight of the starry
heavens, especially in the more open savannahs. Our
thoughts revert unwittingly to those lovely nights on
the silent deep, when the vessel is borne along as by an
unseen power, on the unruffled surface of the waters
beneath the A'ault of a tropical sky. The charm is
heightened by the countless swarms of fire-flies, whose
phosphorescent lamps flash out and again suddenly
disappear in the gloom. But these are visions to
be seen in order to be felt ; such nights must have
been actually experienced, for it is as impossible to
describe as it is to forget the varied effects they
produce on the mind of the lonely wayfarer.
Fauna
Eeference has already been made to the extinct faunas
of the pampean and Patagonian Tertiary formations,
showing that animal life was formerly far more abundant
in those regions than is now the case. At present the
Eio Negro forms to some extent a zoological as well as a
botanical parting-line, as indicated by the two species of
the rhea (" American ostrich ") and of the jaguar, the
ARGENTINA 369
smaller in both cases being confined to Patagonia, the
larger ranging the northern regions.
Peculiar to the extreme south are also two varieties
of the wild cat, a dwarfish armadillo (Dasypus minutus)
and some species of the mouse family, which are here
more numerous than elsewhere. But the divide is
crossed by the ubiquitous puma and guanaco, which
range to the extremity of the continent, and, of course,
by many birds, which, however, acquire new habits in
the southern steppe lands, where the conditions of life
are more difficult. Thus tlie condor, whose flight is
mostly restricted to the uplands in Peru and Ecuador,
descends in Patagonia down to sea-level. Water-fowl,
both waders and swimmers, are represented in great
variety and in vast numbers, and include some distinct
species, such as the " steamer duck," the black-necked
swan and the flamingo, which is of smaller size but
richer colour than its African congener. Scenes of
extraordinary animation are often presented by the pam-
pean lagoons, where at the crack of a rifle countless flocks
of all kinds rise suddenly on the wing, " strings of wild
duck of half a dozen species ; clouds of sandpipers and
teal ; bronze ibises — beautiful birds with glossy dark
green and coppery plumage — shooting past like arrow-
heads, which they exactly resemble in their flight ;
herons and cranes innumerable ; serried columns of gor-
geous flamingos, their scarlet wings all glowing in the
sun ; the rare and lovely roseate spoonl )ill." ^
Of the numerous species of rails the finest is the
ypccaha, which is one of those birds given to holding
public gatherings and dancing performances. " A number
of ypecahas have their assembling places on a small area
of smooth level ground just above the water, and hemmed
1 Rumbold, p. 280.
VOL. I 2 B
370 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
in by dense rush beds. First, one bird among the rushes
emits a powerful cry, thrice repeated, and this is a note
of invitation quickly responded to by other birds from
all sides as they hurriedly repair to the usual place. In
a few moments they appear to the numljer of a dozen or
twenty, bursting from the rushes, and running into the
open space, and instantly beginning the performance.
This is a tremendous screaming concert. The screams
they utter have a certain resemblance to the human
voice, exerted to its utmost pitch, and expressive of
extreme terror, frenzy and despair. A long piercing
shriek is succeeded by a lower note, as if in the first the
creature had well-nigh exhausted itself. While scream-
ing the birds rush from side to side, as if possessed by
madness, the wings spread and vibrating, the long beak
wide open and raised vertically. This exhibition lasts
tliree or four minutes, after which the assembly peacefully
breaks up." ^
Of the pampean mammals the most characteristic is
the mzcacha, which corresponds to the North American
prairie dog, and like it lives in friendly association with
the burrowing owl and other night birds in their common
underground dwellings. " This large rodent inhabits a
vast extent of country, north, west, and south of the true
pampas, but nowhere is he so thoroughly on his native
heath as on the great grassy plain. He lives in a small
community of twenty or thirty members, in a village of
deep-chambered burrows, and as the village endures for
ever, or for an indefinite time, the earth constantly being
brought up forms a mound 30 or 40 feet in diameter,
and this protects the habitation from floods on low or
level ground. Again, he is not swift of foot, and all
rapacious beasts are his enemies ; he also loves to feed on
1 The Naturalist in La Plata, ]i. 267.
ARGENTINA 371
tender succulent herbs and grasses, to seek for which he
would have to go far afield among the giant grass, where
his watchfid foes are lying in wait to seize him. He
saves himself from this danger by making a clearing all
round his al)ode, on which a smooth turf is formed ; and
here the animals feed and have their evening pastimes in
comparative security ; for when an enemy approaches he
is easily seen ; the note of alarm is sounded, and the
whole company scuttle away to their refuge. In dis-
tricts having a different soil and vegetation, as in
Patagonia, the vizcachas' curious, unique instincts are of
no special advantage, which makes it seem probable that
they have been formed on the pampas." ^
On the whole the reptile world is poorly represented,
and seems to show a tendency towards degradation in
the direction of the south. Thus the JacarS alligator,
although numerous in the Corrientes waters, scarcely
anywhere exceeds six or seven feet in length. The boa
and the rattle-snake range, the former no farther south
than Santiago del Estero, the latter than the Cordoba
heights. On the other hand, insect pests, such as mos-
quitoes, the horrible ixodes, a tick of the jigger type,
and the tiny but bloodthirsty bicho Colorado ("red beast"),
abound to such an extent as to render some districts
almost uninhabitable. " The ticks, inhabiting regions
rich in bird and insect life, but with few mannnals, are
in the same condition as mosquitoes, as far as the supply
of l)lood goes ; and, like the mosquitoes, they are able to
exist without the nourishment best suited to them.
They are nature's miserable castaways, parasitical tribes
lost in a great dry wilderness where no blood is ; and
every marsh-born mosquito, piping of the hunger gnaw-
ing its vitals, and every forest tick, blindly feeling with
1 The Naturalist in La Plata, [>. 10.
372 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TltAVEL
its grappling-irons for the beast that never brushes by,
seems to tell us of a world peopled with gigantic forms,
mammalian and reptilian, which once afforded abundant
pasture to the parasite, and which the parasite perhaps
assisted to overthrow." ^
These noxious pests are in their turn preyed upon by
the dragon-flies which, like the locusts of the Old World,
occasionally visit the pampas and the Patagonian steppe
in countless myriads. There are several varieties, some
three or four inches long, but all associate together
in these tremendous " dragon-fly storms," which come,
not with the cold south-westerii gales, but in advance of
them, hence called Mjos del 2Jci777pero (" children of the
pampas wind"). At times they arrive almost simultane-
ously with the storm, going by like a flash, and instantly
vanishing from sight. " You have scarcely time to see
them before the wind strikes you. As a rule, however,
they make their appearance from five to fifteen minutes
before the wind strikes ; and when they are in great
numbers, the air to a height of ten or twelve feet above
the surface of the ground is all at once seen to be full
of them, rushing past with extraordinary velocity in a
north-easterly direction. When they pass over the level,
treeless country, not one insect lags behind or permits
the wind to overtake it. But on arriving at a wood or
large plantation they swarm into it, as if seeking shelter
from some swift pursuing enemy, and on such occasions
they sometimes remain clinging to the trees while the
wind spends its force" (ih. p. 131). But instead of
consuming the vegetation, these carnivorous creatures
fall upon the bush-ticks, gnats, sand-flies and similar
pests, causing them to vanish like smoke.
Most European domestic animals have been success-
1 The Naturalist in La Plata, p. 142.
V 3-
To face jjage S11.
soiTii cmi h
1
N
, , . "TZ'.'^y^^
* v^-^
* e^ j_ ^ ^vM I
AUGENTJNA 373
fully introduced. Some, such as the horse, have even
run wild on some of the uplands, while others, such as
the sheep and horned cattle, have undergone slight
modifications of form in the process of adaptation to
their new surroundings. Such changes, advantageous to
the animal in the struggle for existence, have not always
proved profitable to its owner. Thus the criolla, or old
pampa breed of sheep, had developed in the course of
three centuries into a distinct variety characterised by
tall, gaunt liony frame, great agility and endurance, but
with lean, dry flesh, like venison, and long, straight wool,
like goat's hair, hence of little use as a wool and food-
producing animal. This breed has accordingly every-
where, except in the poor localities, been either improved
by crossing or else replaced by fresh stock from Spain
and England. All these animals have multiplied pro-
digiously, and constitute at present the chief source of
wealth in a country which suffers from a deficiency of
moisture, and is consequently better suited for stock-
breeding than for tillaffe.
CHAPTEE XI
ARGENTINA — {continued)
Inhabitants — Prehistoric Peoples — The Pampas Indians and Guarani of
the Missions — The Calchaquis and Gran Chaco Indians — The Tobas
and Matacos — The Gauchos — The Patagonians — The Argentinos and
Italians — Topography — Historic Retrospect — Material Progress —
Railway Enterprise — Agriculture and Stock-breeding — Government
— Political Situation — Religion — Education — Defences.
Inhabitants — Prehistoric Peoples
It was shown iu Chapter II. that at the time of the
discovery the South American cultural area was mainly
confined to the western uplands from the Cundinamarca
plateau to the southern limits of the Peruvian empire.
But there are indications that at a still more remote
epoch the civilisation represented hy the Incas had been
preceded by a different culture widely difiused over the
eastern slopes of the Argentine Cordillera, and even on
the now arid lowlands l^etween the present provinces of
Jujuy and Mendoza. The so-called " Incas' Eoad," whicli
may still be followed for hundreds of miles over the
plains with branches ramifying in various directions, is
believed by some archieologists to date from pre-Inea
times.
Here also liave been discovered certain rock inscrip-
ARGENTINA
37;
tions or carvings, the remains of extensive irrigation
works, stone and metal objects, and some other evidences
of an ancient civilisation, of which no memories have
survived, and which would seem to have gradually
disappeared with the growing deterioration of the climate
in the Upper Colorado basin. What became of the
peoples associated with these remains ? Did they with-
TIIE INCAS BRIDGE OX THE M liNDUZA-SANTI AGO KOAD.
draw to the Andean plateaux, and found new seats on
the shores of Lake Titicaca, where afterwards rose the
megalithic monuments of Tiahuanaco ?
There is abundant evidence to show that in remote
times, under more favourable climatic conditions, both
the pampas plains and the Patagonian steppe were far
more thickly peopled than at present, though not by
races that can be described as cultured, in the ordinarv
376 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
sense of the term. They appear to have nowhere
advanced beyond the New Stone Age, as shown by the
rude pottery dug up in the numerous ^9ar«(?e9'OS or
stations of early man strewn over the pampas between
the Pdo Carcaraila and the Plate estuary. The rude
stone implements occurring in abundance in the glacial
drift of the Eio Negro and elsewhere, together with the
human remains found in association with the extinct
pampas fauna, and also in the shell mounds of the coast
and the interior about the head of the old Plate estuary,
when it penetrated 200 or 300 miles farther inland than
at present, show further that these regions had been
occupied in still more remote times corresponding with
the Old Stone Age of the northern hemisphere.
Abundant proofs of former human settlements on
the now lifeless Patagonian wastes have been collected
by Mr. Hudson on the exposed sites of numberlet-s
villages of the former inhabitants of the Negro valley.
" I have visited a dozen such village sites in the course
of one hour's walk, so numerous are they. Where the
village had been a populous one, or inhabited for a long
period, the ground was a perfect bed of chipped stones,
and amono; these fragments were found arrow-heads, flint
knives and scrapers, mortars and pestles, anvils, perforated
shells, fragments of pottery. The site where I picked
up the largest number had been buried to a depth of
seven or eight feet ; only where the water had washed
great masses of sand and gravel away the arrow-heads,
with other weapons and implements, had been exposed." ^
The Pampas Indians and Guarani of the Missions
Probably nine-tenths of the different tribal groups in
^ Idle Days in Patagonia, p. 39.
ARGENTINA 377
possession of the land at the advent of the whites have
since disappeared, either absorbed in the general Hispano-
American population, or exterminated during the early-
border warfare, or by the systematic policy of the
Argentine administration in recent years. Thus the
Querandi, Ranqueles, and others of the Plate district,
collectively called Panvpas Indians, who for a time
successfully resisted the first efforts of the Spaniards to
gain a footing on the south side of the estuary, and
afterwards continued their predatory expeditions for over
two centuries right up to the walls of Buenos Ayres,
were at last seriously taken in hand in 1879, and
practically cleared out by General Eoca's well -devised
" plan of campaign." In a few years vast tracts previously
exposed to their incursions were thrown open to settlers,
and a greater change effected in the ethnical relations
than had been brought about since the first occupation
of the land.
In the region between the Parana and the Uruguay,
the natives, mostly of Guarani stock and less warlike
temperament, had at an early period been gathered by
the Jesuits about the stations, and although the
" missions " were afterwards broken up, the majority of
these mansos (" tame ") Indians were gradually absorbed
in the general white population. A like destiny was
experienced by the bulk of the Calckaqiii, the dominant
people of the north-western provinces, who had already
before the conquest been brought into contact with the
Incas, spoke the Quichuan language, and were possibly
of Quichua descent. Farther south the pampas were
roamed by the Gcnuakens, who were of a different type
from the Patagonians, and spoke a different language.
l)ut they are now nearly extinct, not more than about
fifty men surviving in 1S99.
378 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
In the extreme south also most of the Patagonian
Tehuelches have lately been induced to give up their
nomad existence and form peaceful settled communities
in the more favoured districts of the plateau. But in
Gran Chaco the fierce Tolas, the Lules, Vildas, Mocovis,
Abipons, Matacos are still in the wild state, and have
hitherto shown little inclination to adopt civilised ways.
Thus it appears that, except in this still scarcely explored
wilderness, the aboriginal element has everywhere been
well-nigh eliminated, and the whole land from Corrientes
to Fuegia secured in perpetuity for the peoples of Caucasic
stock.
The Calchaquis and Gran Chaco Indians
Of the former inhabitants of Argentina the Calchaquis
were both the most numerous and the farthest removed
from the savage state. They were formerly widely
diffused over the plains between the Cordoba heights and
the Cordilleras, and were long dominant in the present
province of Tucuman, but gradually disappeared as a
distinct nationality after their final overthrow by the
Spaniards in 1664. At that time the Quilmes branch
were removed to the settlement of Buenos Ayres, where
some of their descendants survived till the middle of the
nineteenth century, and where the name is perpetuated
in one of the suburbs of that city. The names of other
branches are similarly kept alive by such geographical
terms as Famatina, Fiamhala, Andalala, Tinogasta, and
many others scattered over the former Calchaqui domain.
Moreover, while the race has been subdued and absorbed,
their old Quichua language still flourishes, and in the
Punilla and other districts is currently spoken by all classes,
by the lower orders exclusively, by the upper jointly with
Spanish. This is another illustration of the well-known
ARGENTINA 6l\)
fact that certain forms of speech — English, Arabic, Malay,
Quichua — are endowed with intense vitality, and persist
for ages under the most adverse circumstances.
In Gran Chaco the Guarani race is chiefly represented
by the semi -independent Chiriguanos, who also range
across the frontier into South -East Bolivia. Although
said to have been conquered by the Inca Yupangui at a
time when they were still utter savages and cannibals
of a pronounced type, they afterwards held out long
against the Spaniards, and even defeated the expedition
of 1571 led against them by the Viceroy Toledo in
person. At present the Chiriguanos are mostly of
Spanish speech, and seek employment on the sugar
plantations about the Bermejo and Juramento rivers.
According to the protracted researches of Senor
Lafone-Quevedo,-^ most of the still independent Gran
Chaco w41d tribes belong to the Guaicvru or Mhaya
family, the chief members of which are the fierce and
powerful Tohas of the Pilcomayo valley, the Mocohi, the
Lules and the nearly extinct Abipons of the Bermejo,
and the Matacos {Mataguayos) along the west side of the
Paraguay and Parana between the Pilcomayo and Salado
confluences.
The Tobas and Matacos
Although far from numerous, probably less than
20,000 altogether, the Tobas are amongst the most
powerful and aggressive of all the South American wild
tribes. None of them have ever l)een reduced, and they
have hitherto repelled all friendly and forcible attempts
of the whites to gain a permanent footing in their
territory. They are typical American aborigines, tall
1 Numerous Pajiers in the Boletin del Instituto Gcocjrafico, Buenos
Ayres, 1890-98, and elsewhere.
380 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
(5 feet 8 inches to 6 feet), slim, bony, with very long,
lank black hair, of ratlier light brown colour, extremely
wary and, like the prairie Indians, men of few words. A
scene witnessed by Mr. Knight on the banks of the
Paraguay shows that there is no exaggeration in Cooper's
pictures illustrating the taciturn disposition of his
Iroquois heroes : " We saw four Indians come stealthily
down to the bank armed with long lances. Then, lying
down among the reeds, they gazed silently into the water
till they saw some big fish pass by, when, with wonderful
skill, they speared them one after the other, and threw
them on the bank. Next they lit a fire, roasted the fish
they had caught, and devoured them. This done, they
picked up their weapons and crept back into the woods
as noiselessly and stealthily as they had come. The
whole time — some three hours — not one of these men
spoke a word ; they gave the necessary directions to each
other by slight inclinations of the head only." ^
Even from a distance the Tobas are known from their
peculiar walk, which resembles that of a highly-trained
stepper. The habit, however, is not racial, but due to
the necessity of raising the foot at each step to the level
of the knee when traversing the marshy Pilcomayo
districts, and the motion thus acquired is retained on
dry ground. It may be compared with the custom of
the Dinkas and some other low races of resting on one
leg, with the other planted against it at a sharp angle.
Even in repose they have to be ever on the alert against
human and other predatory animals. The Tobas are
true nomads, moving about without any settled abodes,
living entirely on hunting and fishing, and, like the
Patagonians, given to drunken orgies often kept up for
days together. Maintaining a state of perpetual warfare
1 Cruise of the Falcon, vol. ii. p. 102.
ARGENTINA 381
with all their neighbours, they go always armed, chiefly
with the spear and club, and after the fight bring the
mangled remains of the enemy home to the family, re-
serving the head for themselves. They are thus inured
to scenes of carnage from their childhood, and it is con-
sidered a mercy to despatch the infirm and aged, and
thus relieve them from a lingering natural death, which
all despise.
Although rated by Pelleschi as the lowest of all the
Chaco Indians in the social scale, the Matacos are far
less ferocious, and lead more settled lives, than the Tobas.
They are generally well disposed towards the whites, and
take part with them in their wars against the hostile
tribes. But they cannot count hejond four, and a famous
Mataco chief, interviewed by Pelleschi, found it a hard
task to reckon up the large number of the enemy that he
had slain in his time. After reaching the fourth he got
puzzled, and, " sitting down cross-legged on the ground,
began making marks on the earth with his finger, ex-
claiming at each one toch, i.e. ' this,' raising his head
each time as well as his hand, and looking at me, added
uuidt toch, ' and this one too ' : and so he went on until
he reached about a score, always, however, turning towards
me that I might understand that, besides these, there
were always the four fingers, until at last I was tired out
with ntocq, 7itocq, ' many, many.' " ^
The Grauchos
Although the FehueleJics, or Fainpas Indians, have
disappeared as a separate ethnical grou]), they have, in
a sense, been replaced by the Gauchos'^ who are usually
1 Op. cit. p. 289.
- Properly Gachn, an Araucanian word meaning "Friend," or "Com-
panion," and used as a term of address, like the American " Stranger,"
382
CO.MJ'ENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
described as half-breeds — whites on the father's, Indians
on the mother's side. But Senor Moreno is inclined to
regard the true Gauchos, i.e. the " Chinos," now nearly
extinct, as almost full -blood aborigines, while the
Gauchos properly so-called are rather direct descendants
of the conquerors, especially the Moriscos, with a large
strain of .Vrab blood, further modified by gradual
adaptation to their new environment. The typical
Gaucho is essentially a child of the steppe, round,
whom a certain halo of romance has been thrown
by his wild venturesome life, his apparent chivalry,
love of finery, splendid horsemanship, and tliat air of
courtesy which belongs to all of Spanish blood. But
AEGENTINA 383
those who know them best do not regret the gradual dis-
appearance of these " panipean centaurs," who, after
playing perhaps a useful part during a transitional period
between rude and civilised social conditions, are now re-
ceding before the steady advance of the " Gringos," ^ or
white immigrants from almost every country in Europe.
There are of course Gauchos and Gauchos, and some have
undoubtedly earned an evil repute for brigandage, and
even piracy, where they have given up the horse for the
canoe about the Lower Parana reaches. Those met by
^Ir. Knight in the upper provinces are described as " a
cut-throat looking lot of ruffians ; ragged, weather-beaten
outlaws, cast, with his long life at his back, many with
holas and lassos, ready to Ijring down any stray cattle
that might come by on their lonely w^anderings " (op.
eit. vol. i. p. 250). But, on the other hand, instances of
nobler qualities are on record, and many have shown
great courage and loyalty in the service of those whites
whom they had learned to trust and respect.
But they must soon get crowded out, for they find it
difficult to exchange their restless habits for the sedentary
life of the settlers and of the townsfolk, all of whom they
despise. It is curious to meet a Gaucho from the pampas
strolling through the busy streets of Cordoba or Eosario,
where he feels so out of place in his . striped poncho, his
laced pantaloons, and leather belt ornamented with bright
coins. He takes no interest in anything, but looks with
contempt on all the surroundings. " Life in the saddle,
on the pampas or in the monte (bush), is the only life
he knows or cares for. Horse-stealinw and cattle-lifting,
in his opinion, are the only pursuits worthy of a man"
^ That is Gricrjos, or "Greeks," so called because supposed to speak
•'Greek," i.e. any language other than Spanish. Cf. the English expres-
sion, " that is Greek to me."
384 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
{ih. p. 137). The last geuuine Gauchos, who retained
the traditions of the race and were recognised as a
distinct element in the Argentine social and political
system, are said to have been the so-called Llanistas of
the La Eioja district, who, however, should be distin-
guished from the Pampean Gauchos, having a larger
admixture of Indian (Huarpe and Calchaqui) blood.
At first the Llanistas were retainers of two powerful
local families, then during the civil wars joined the
ferocious Facundo Quiroga, with their dreaded banner :
" Eeligion or Death."
Some of the stories told of the amazing powers of
observation and sagacity of these free lances may not be
true, but they serve to indicate the reputation they have
earned for such qualities. If they lose their way by
night, they pluck some grass and taste it, go a mile or
two on and taste some more, and thus find the direction
of the__ river, lake or wood they wish to reach. By the
flight of birds, by a cloud of dust, they can tell the
number of the approaching tropillas (caravans), and Mr.
Knight knew of one who never forgot the footprint of
man or horse to which his attention had once been
directed. On one occasion while travelling he stopped
suddenly, and pointing to a print, said, " The little gray
horse stolen from my master, Don Luis, three years ago,
passed here an hour ago." So it turned out, and the
horse was recovered {op. cit. vol. i. p. 220).
The Patagonians
Beyond the Eio Negro the Chilian Araucanians liave
crossed the Cordillera at several points. But there was
little inducement for them to range far down the fertile
and well -watered slopes of the mountains everywhere
ARGENTINA
381
merging in the arid wastes of Patagonia. Hence the
whole of this region from the Negro to Fuegia has
remained i'rom remote times
in the unchallenged posses-
sion of the gigantic race,
whom the companions of
Magellan hy mistake called
" Patagones," or " Big Feet,"
these extremities being in
fact rather small compared
to their large figures. The
error arose probably from
their custom of wearing in
cold weather loose guanaco-
skin wraps over their boots,
thus giving an ungainly ap-
pearance to the feet. No
native collective name is
known, if any exists, for
all the tribal groups ; hence
antliropologists have now
adopted the term Tehuelche,
applied by the Araucanians
in a general way to the whole
race. After the first accounts
published by Pigafetta, his-
torian of the Magellanic
expedition, other observers,
improving on those accounts,
reported the existence in the
same region of a veritable race
of Anaks ranging in height
from 10 to 12 feet. But such reports are generally
regarded as fabulous, and there is no reason to suppose
VOL. I - ^
IKHUELCHE.
386 COMPENDIUM OF GE0C4RAPHY AND TRAVEL
that the present Patagonians differ apprecial)]y in their
physical characters from those first sighted by Magellan.
They were nevertheless universally regarded as the tallest
people in the world, with a mean height of from 6 feet
to 6 feet 4 inches, until the members of the recent
Ehrenreich expedition showed by accurate measurements
that the Bororos of Central Brazil were of about the same
colossal stature.^ There are even other reasons for
thinking that the Tehuelches may be descended from
some Bororo immigrants into Patagonia in prehistoric
times ; but the question is of too speculative a nature
for discussion in these pages.
A memorable account has been left us by Lieutenant
Musters of the wandering life of these steppe nomads,
w^itnessed and even shared in by him on one eventful
occasion, when he accompanied their wandering expedi-
tions from one end of Patagonia to the other. Having
completed his arrangements with the Tehuelche chief
Orkeke, he started in August 1869 from a settlement on
the Santa Cruz on his long journey northwards with a
band of these natives. The march was one long hunting
excursion, varied with murderous wranglings and en-
counters, generally of a friendly nature, with other
kindred groups. For the Patagonians are not a warlike
people, and though very quarrelsome amongst themselves,
especially in their drinking bouts, have always lived on
a peaceful footing with their neighbours.
When on the march, a halt of a few days would now
and then be made in some verdant glen, where the
produce of the chase would be cooked and eaten, and the
toldos pitched for the night's rest. The toldo, a kind of
1 Dr. Paul Ehrenreich, Urleicohner Brasilicns, pp. 121, 125. Some of
these Bororos were found to be 6 feet 4 inches in licight, although "the
tallest were not measured."
ARGENTINA 387
tent, easily constructed, is the only shelter of this home-
less, wandering race. A row of forked posts about 3 feet
high is driven into the ground, and a ridge-pole laid
across in front of these ; at a distance of about 6 feet a
second row 5 feet high, also with a ridge-pole ; and at
the same distance from these a third row 6 feet high is
fixed. A covering made of guanaco skins, smeared with
a mixture of grease and red ochre, is drawn over from
behind and secured by thongs to the front poles. Hide
hangings, fastened between the inner poles, partition off
the sleeping places, while the baggage piled round the
sides serves to exclude the cold air. In bad weather an
additional covering is secured to the front, and brought
down over an extra row of short poles, making all snug.
The duty of pitching and striking the toldo devolves on
the women, a number of whom accompanied the party,
who were mounted on good serviceable horses ridden
without saddles.
Ascending the Chico valley towards the north-west
they soon came in sight of the snowy Cordillera, which
for hundreds of miles limited the view on their left.
Moving along the base of the mountains, excursions were
occasionally made into the upland valleys and wooded
slopes, where wild cattle were chased. Fartlier north
the country became more wild and rugged, being furrowed
by narrow ravines, deep and gloomy gorges through
which flowed torrential streams. Beyond the Eio Limay
a visit was paid to the more settled Manzaneros, who are
so called from their headquarters, the old Jesuit station
of Las Manzanas, but are called Chennas by the Pata-
gonians, and are an eastern branch of the Araucanians.
From the Jesuits they appear to have acquired the art
of extracting a good cider from the apples of the district,
and also a stronger drink from the algarroba bean. But
388 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the Tehuelches have nothing but the vile foreign spirits
which, combined with epidemics, and especially small-
pox, is rapidly thinning their numbers. In Musters'
time they had been reduced from over 20,000 to 3000,
and were estimated in 1899 at not more than 300 souls.
Besides their tall statiu-e, this observer describes them
as exceedingly well proportioned, with an astonishing
muscular development in the arms, great walking power,
and tlie faculty of enduring total abstinence from food
for days together with little or no inconvenience.
Hardships and labour produce no ill effects even on the
women, though age renders them quite repulsive. The
men wear the cliiripa (drawers), never laid aside, and a
warm loose cloak of guanaco skin, with hairy side in and
the outside painted in various colours. The hair is re-
tained by a broad fillet, or even a net, and that of the
women worn with two pigtails, at times eked out with
horse-hair. Both sexes wear silver ornaments, and bedaub
the face with red ochre or black earth and tattoo the
fore-arm.
They are great smokers, drinkers, and gamblers ; but
in the wild state their chief business is the chase, pursuing
the rhea and guanaco on horseback, and capturing them
with the bola, in the use of which they excel. They
worship, not the sun, but the new moon, and also believe
in a great spirit, who created the Indians and the animals,
and dispersed them from a certain hill in the interior of
the land. But he is too good to injure them ; hence all
their attention is devoted to the evil spirits, and especially
the gualichu or chief demon, who has to be propitiated,
or warded off by the medicine man. The gualichu takes
up his position at the back of the toldo, always on the
look out for an opportunity to molest the inmates. He
may even enter the body and cause sickness, which the
ARGENTINA
389
medicine man is expected to cure, while other evil beings
inhabiting underground dwellings are warded off by
respectful salutations and spells. The medicine men —
wizards, doctors, priests all in one — have also to foretell
the success or failure of undertakings, the issue of sickness
and the future generally ; hence theirs is not an enviable
position, the failure of their predictions being often
pvmished with death. But, on the other hand, they are
everywhere received with honour, and welcomed at all
festive gatherings.
Summing up their moral character. Lieutenant Musters
describes them, not as ferocious savages and brigands,
but rather as kindly, good-tempered, impulsive children
of nature, moody perhaps, and fanciful in their likes and
dislikes, hence firm . friends or confirmed enemies, un-
truthful in minor matters, but always loyal to those whom
they have learned to trust. All have now given in their
submission to the Argentine authorities, no longer go
about armed with the national spear and buckler, and
even call themselves Christians. In any case the cruel
practices formerly associated with their burial rites have
fallen into disuse, and the bones of the dying are no
longer broken, either to hasten the end or prepare them
the more easily for interment in a foreshortened attitude.
The Argentines and Italians
Except the Calchaquis and Huarpes in the remote in-
terior, there were no settled communities in the Argentine
lands at the advent of the white man. All the other
aborigines were in the wild state, mostly nomads scattered
thinly over the country. Hence few alliances could take
place between them and the intruders, and the result is
that the Argentinos proper show a slighter strain of
390 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Indian blood than most other Hispano- Americans. On
the otiier hand, there is good reason to think that amongst
the first settlers there was a considerable percentage both
of Basques and of Moriscos, that is, forcibly converted
Arabo-Berber Muhammadans from the southern provinces
of the peninsula. The Basque language continued to be
long current in several districts, and in the local Spanish
idiom many Arabic terms occur, which have died out
or had never found their way into the Castilian of
the central and northern provinces. But all are now
merged in a single nationality, whose homogeneous
character is menaced by the large stream of European
immigrants steadily pouring into the country, especially
from Italy.
At first arriving with the intention of returning to
their homes after earning enough to live at ease for the
rest of their days, the Italians have in recent years shown
an increasing tendency to remain in a land where they
are welcomed, where the conditions of existence are easier,
and where their sons escape from the hated conscription.
To capitalists they are a source of great wealth, for their
labour is both cheap and good. They are preferred to
all others as day labourers on the farms, being hard
workers, frugal and contented, and with a little instruc-
tion they soon make excellent mechanics. They already
number considerably over half a million, keeping some-
what aloof from the rest of the population, and maintain-
ing their own schools, to which the Italian Government
contributes, on the condition that the teaching be carried
on in the Italian language. But this artificial aloofness
must gradually yield to the subtle influences which tend
to uniformity in all large political communities, and the
slow process of fusion will doubtless bring about new
ethnical combinations of all the Latin and Teutonic
ARGENTINA
391
elements, on the consequences of which it would be
premature to speculate.
Topography
In Argentina the rapid material progress of the last
few decades is reflected in the great increase of the urban
groups, several of which, mere rural villages a few years
ago, are now flourishing cities of many thousand inhabi-
tants. The subjoined table shows that towns with
populations of 10,000 and upwards are more numerous
than in any other South American State, while Buenos
Ayres, capital of the republic, is by far the largest city in
the whole of Latin America, and outnumbered only by
three in the United States — New York with Brooklyn,
Chicago and Philadelphia.
Towns.
Buenos Ayres
Rosario .
Cordoba
La Plata
Tucuman
Meudoza
Santa Fe
Parana .
Corrientes
Salta
San Nicolas
Chivilcoy
Gualeguaychu
Concordia
Rio Cuarto
Pop. (1S9S).
753,000
95,000
66,000
65,000
34,000
29,000
25,000
24,000
19,000
17,000
15,000
15,000
13,000
13,000
12,000
Towns.
Pop (1S9S)
San Juan
12,000
Gualeguay
11,000
San Luis
11,000
Concepcion
10,000
Santiago del Estero
10,000
Barrancas al Sud .
10,000
Mercedes
10,000
Azul
8,000
Pergamino
8,000
Nogoya .
8,000
Dolores .
8,000
Catamarca
7,000
Bahia Blanca .
7,000
La Rioja
6,000
Tandil .
6,000
In the territory of Misiones and the province of
Entre Bios the few agricultural settlements — Concepcion,
Santo Tome, Yapeyu, Monte Caseros — nearly all occupy
the sites of the old Jesuits' " missions," and are still in-
habited by quiet, industrious half-breeds, amongst whom
392 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the Guarani element largely predominates. Yapeyu,
on the right bank of the Uruguay, was for a time the
headquarters of these missions, but has since been
re-named San Martin, in honour of the famous revolu-
tionary hero born in this place. Farther down follow
the riverine ports of Concordia, facing the Uruguayan
town of Salto, and Colon, opposite Paysandu, both
accessible to large steamers at high water. Colon serves
as the outlet for the produce of the thriving colony of
San Jos4, founded by some Swiss and Savoy peasants in
1863. Gualeguaychu and Gnaleguay, both named from
the sluggish streams on which they stand, have shared
in the prosperity of this fertile " Mesopotamia," and are
now amongst the richest places in Entre Eios. But
at present the largest town in this province is the port
of Parana, which faces Santa Fe on the main stream,
and for a time (from 1852 to 1861) enjoyed the dis-
tinction of being the capital of the Eepublic.
Corrientes, capital of the province of Corrientes, was
founded in 1588 on the left bank of the Parana 15
miles below the Paraguay confluence and 830 miles
above Buenos Ayres, with which it is connected both by
rail and by a regular service of steamers. Its full name
is San Juan de las Siete Corrientes (" St. John of the Seven
Currents "), in reference to the rapids which are developed
by the reefs projecting at this point of the river without,
however, offering any serious obstruction to the naviga-
tion. Corrientes is one of the largest places on the left
bank of the Parana, and here have been established the
building and repairing docks for the steamers plying
between the estuary and Paraguay.
On the west side of the Parana the improved com-
munications by rail and river have attracted numerous
settlers from France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy to
AEGENTIXA 393
the province of Santa Fe, which is named from its
capital, the city of Santa Fe, founded by Juan de Garay
in 1573 at the confluence of the Salado with the main
stream. Santa F^, formerly the headquarters of the
Jesuits' missions among the refractory Gran Chaco
Indians, is now a flourishing riverine port, serving as
the outlet for the produce of Esperanza and the many
other agricultural stations of the surrounding district,
which owe their prosperity mainly to the system of
small holdings here adopted. The capital, which is
rapidly encroaching on the plains south of the Salado,
does not stand on the main stream, but on a lateral
riacho (branch), draining the shallow Guadalupe lagoon
to the Colastine channel. Here is the port of Colastine,
which is accessible to vessels drawing over 20 feet even
at low water, and is connected with Santa Fe by a
railway 7 miles long, over which most of the traffic is
carried.
Rosario, near the Carcaraiia confluence, was a mere
village of 2000 or 3000 inhabitants in the middle of
the nineteenth century ; now it is the second city in the
State, with a population rapidly approaching 100,000.
It owes its expansion partly to its position at the point
where the Parana begins to bend round towards the
estuary, and partly to the troublous times when Buenos
Ayres had seceded from the Confederacy and the central
government was stationed at Parana. In 1854 a State
railway was ordered to be constructed from Eosario to
Cordoba, while a large reduction of dues was decreed in
favour of vessels ascending the Parana without calling
at Buenos Ayres. Eosario, which is accessible to ships
drawing 16 feet, immediately became the main outlet
for all the inland })rovinces, and continues to be visited
by a large number of Trans-Atlantic liners, wiiich here
AEGENTINA 395
ship metals, ores, wheat, hides, alalfa grass and other
produce for Europe and the United States. Its prosperity
was ensured by the development of the agricultural
settlements founded by Italian, German, Swiss, and other
immigrants, all of whom succeeded except the English.
Hence the name of Eosario bears an evil repute in
England, being associated chiefly with grossly misman-
aged colonisation schemes ending in utter ruin.
But the class of colonists sent out by the speculators
was such as to make failure a foregone conclusion. At
Frayle Muerto, between Eosario and Cordoba, Mr. Knight
met some survivors of the ill-fated Henley venture, started
by a number of young English gentlemen, "unsteady,
fresh from school and college and regiment, without any
practical knowledge of anything, who arrived at Eosario
in a batch, and considerably astonished the natives
by their manners and customs. Drinking, gambling
and horse-racing was the order of the day; the capital
they had brought with them took unto itself wings ;
the natives smiled at the ways of the locos In/jleses
('mad Englishmen')" (o^j>. cit p. 158), and the now
thriving little town of Erayle Muerto has been mostly
built on the spoils wrung from them by publicans and
usurers.
The province of Jujuy, in the far north-west, takes its
name from its capital Jujuy, founded in 1 5 9 2 by Velasco
on the San Francisco head-stream of the Bermejo 4000
feet above sea-level. Although lying in a fertile well-
watered district yielding an abundance of agricultural
produce, Jujuy has not prospered, and at present owes its
importance mainly to the transit trade with Bolivia.
Here the historical highway leads through the old
Quichuan town of Humakuaca near the source of the San
Francisco over the Cortaderas Pass (12,970 feet) to the
396 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRA.VEL
plateau. Below Jujuy follows the riverine port of Oran
at the head of the navigation of the Bermejo, which is
here formed by the junction of the San Francisco with
the Tarija from Bolivia. Canoes and flat-bottomed boats
ascend the Bermejo to this point, which is 1860 miles
from Buenos Ayres. But the difficulty and tedious
water traffic is now almost entirely replaced by that of
the Tucuman (Great Northern) railway, which has been
extended all the way to Jujuy.
The province of Salta is also named from its capital,
Salta, which lies on the route between Jujuy and
Tucuman, and carries on a brisk frontier trade both
with Bolivia and Chili. The name is familiar in England
in connection with the financial speculator, Jabez Balfour,
who after the crash for a time escaped the arm of justice
by retiring to this remote Argentine town.
South of Salta follows the old Quichuan district of
Tucuman, with its capital of like name, founded in 1585
on a rich and highly cultivated plain at the western foot
of the superb Sierra Aconquija. Tucuman is a historical
city connected with many of the stirring events both of
the Spanish wars and of the subsequent civil commotions,
and here was proclaimed the independence of the land
in 1816. Since the opening of the Great Northern
Eailway numerous European immigrants have settled in
the district, which is covered with farm-steads, sugar and
coffee plantations, while the local refineries and distilleries
yield many thousand tons of sugar, and large quantities
of cana (rum), much prized in the surrounding lands.
But the glowing accounts of the natural resources of
the province have to be taken with some reserve, and
serious drawbacks are certainly the periodical flights of
locusts, the permanent swarms of mosquitoes, and especi-
ally the dangerous chuchu fever, which is endemic,
ARGENTINA 397
being due to the foul exhalations from all the swampy
depressions.
In Peruvian times the term Tucma, of which Tucuman
appears to be a modified Spanish form, had a much
wider application than at present. It certainly included
the neighbouring province of Santiago del Ester o, named
from its capital, which was founded in 1563 on the right
bank of the Eio Dulce in the midst of lagoons and
esteros (" morasses "). These swampy tracts form part of
the shifting bed of the river, which occasionally returns
to its old channels, causing disastrous floods, as in the
year 1633, when many of the inhabitants removed, some
to Tucuman, others to Cordoba. Then came the Jesuits,
who under almost overwhelming difficulties transformed
the place to the centre of a sort of theocratic government,
like that of Paraguay. After their dispersion Santiago
fell to the position of a half-forgotten rural hamlet, from
which it has again recovered since it has become a
station on the Cordoba-Tucuman section of the Northern
Eailway. Its sugar industry employs a considerable
number of hands, while the climate is improved as
the land gets di'ained and brought more under cultiva-
tion.
West of Tucuman, and separated from it by the
Aconquija range, lies the much larger but far less
favoured province of Catamarca, with its capital of like
name, founded in 1 6 8 on the Eio del Valle, nearly 1900
feet above sea-level. The " valley," which is enclosed west
and east by the Sierras Ambato and Ancaste, southern
ramifications of Aconquija, runs out in the Salinas, that
is, the salt plains which separate these mountains from
the Cordoba heights. Close to the point of bifurcation,
where the system culminates in the lofty peak of Acon-
quija, are situated the Andalgala copper-mines, the most
398 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
productive iii Argentina. They take their name from
a now extinct or absorbed Calehaqui tribe, by whom
they were worked under the Incas, and afterwards for-
gotten, or, according to the tradition, concealed from the
Spaniards by the Indians for over 300 years. Since
their re-discovery about 1850, they have yielded a yearly
output of nearly 2500 tons of ore, which is smelted at
the Pilciaio works, and found to contain from 5 to 7
per cent of pure metal. Catamarca is an important
station on the Great Northern Railway, by which
it communicates in one direction with Cordoba and
Rosario, in another with the three provincial capitals,
Rioja, San Juan, and Mendoza, following in the direction
from north to south along the eastern slopes of the
Chilian Andes.
At the east foot of the Velasco heights lies the
town of Eioja, which commands a wide prospect of one of
the most fertile districts in Argentina. Wherever water
can be procured, the light porous soil of the Eioja plains
yields splendid crops of wheat, wine, and oranges. But
the supply is limited, and it has been found impossible
to greatly enlarge the area of the cultivable land by
irrigation works. Moreover, the climate appears to be
growing drier, and the western Eio Bermejo, which flows
through the province of Eioja southwards to the Silvero
lagoon, reaches that basin only during the floods.
Farther north the whole district between the Velasco
and Famatina ranges is highly metalliferous, abounding
in gold, silver, copper, iron, and nickel to such an extent
that the mountain torrents are so charged with mineral
particles as to be useless for irrigation purposes. Cliilecito
or Villa Argentina (" Silver Town "), chief centre of the
mining operations, which were begun early in the nine-
teenth century, is now connected by rail with the general
ARGENTINA
399
Argentine system, and also communicates through Fama-
tina and over the mountain passes with the Chilian
province of Atacama.
Mineral deposits abound also in the adjoining province
of San Juan, whose capital of like name was founded in
the year 1561 on the Kio San Juan. This copious stream
AVKN'IDA S. MARTIN, MKXDOZA.
feeds a large number of irrigation rills, by which exten-
sive tracts have been brought mider cultivation, and then
falls through two liranches into the (ruanacache lagoon.
This basin in its turn discharges through two outlets east
to Lake Silvero a,nd south by the Eio Mendoza to the
plain on which stands the city of Mendoza, where it is
absorbed in tlie surroundinu' irrio-ation canals.
Mendoza, capital of the province named from it, and
400 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGUAl'IIY AND TKAVEL
formerly metropolis of the Viceroyalty of La llata, was
founded in 1560, and lasted just three centuries to the
year 1861, when it was overwhelmed by one of the most
tremendous earthquakes on record. Of its 15,000 in-
habitants from 10,000 to 12,000 perished amid the
ruins of the houses and churches, nearly all of which
collapsed. But the place was soon rebuilt near the old
site, and is at present one of the largest and finest cities
in Argentina. " Fine public buildings, private dwellings
that indicate comfort and convenience, gardens with their
fruitful vines and fig-trees, walnut trees and poplars
grace the public streets and walks ; but above all, the
pleasant promenade, more than half a mile in length,
with its streams of running water flowing on both sides
beneath tlie shade of two double rows of well-grown
trees. Add to this the mountain torrent, which rolls
past Mendoza along its bed of rounded stones and gravel
from the mighty Cordillera, whose slopes reach almost to
the city."^
The prosperity of Mendoza is due partly to tlie
cultivation of the vine, and partly to its position
on the great historical highway to the Pacific, which
is soon to be replaced by the Trans-Andean Eailway
crossing the Cordillera near Aconcagua (see p. 336). This
is the most direct route between Buenos Ayres and Val-
paraiso, and the line when completed must become one
of the great commercial and international highways of
the globe. Mendoza is also the centre of a rich agri-
cultural district, and exports considerable quantities of
fodder (lucerue), wine, hides, cattle, and other produce
both to Chili and Buenos Ayres. As many as 50,000
head of cattle are forw^arded in some jea.vs over the
Cumhre Fuss to the Chilian markets. A little to the
^ R. Crawford, Across the Pampas and the Andes, ]>. 186.
ARGENTINA
401
north-west is the much frequented UspaJlata Pass, which
crosses the Andes near Aconcagam at a height of 12,795
feet,
South of Mendoza the chief centre of population is
iSaiL Ilafacl, near the source of the Eio Diamante, which
flows eastwards intermittently to the Eio Salado below
the Bebedero lagoon. Formerly a frontier station and
SUMMIT OF rSPALLATA PASS [LA CUMBRE).
outpost against the predatory I'ampas Indians, San Eafael
has now become a flourishing agricultural settlement,
forwarding its produce by the Planclion and Cruz de
Piedra Passes over the Andes to Chili. Here are also
extensive coalfields, which, judging from the imperfect
surveys, seem to reach all the way to the Neuquen dis-
trict, and yield an excellent fuel, the seams being in some
places from 10 to 12 or 14 feet thick.
East of Mendoza, but still for the most part within the
VOL. I 2 D
402 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
drainage area of the Eio Salado (Upper Colorado closed
basin), lies the arid province of San Luis, which takes
its name from its capital San Luis, founded in 1597 by
Martin de Loyola on the slopes of the Funta de los
Venados, 2500 feet above sea-level. Fruits and the
vine are cultivated in the surrounding district by
artificial irrigation from a reservoir containing several
hundred million cubic feet of water. But the capital is
already threatened with the rivalry of Villa de Mercedes,
founded so recently as 185 6 in a much more favourable
position on the left bank of the Eio Quinto. Here is
the converging point of several railway lines south of
the Cordoba heights, and here the fertile plains are
watered by several canals fed by the main stream, which
flows perennially for some distance beyond Mercedes.
From this place the Trans-Continental Eailway runs
north-east to Villa Nueva, where the Great Northern
branches off north-west to Cordoha, capital of the vast
province of the same narae — a kingdom in itself, aljound-
ing in all kinds of natural resources, and with a magnifi-
cently diversified area nearly as large as the v/liole of
England and Wales combined, but with a present popula-
tion scarcely exceeding that of the city of Leeds.
But in colonial times this region was secluded from
the rest of the world by the policy of the Jesuits, who
had made the capital a city of churches and convents,
and the headquarters of their missions amongst the
surrounding aborigines. Later, the southern districts
continued to be exposed to the depredations of the
Eanqueles and other marauding Pampean tribes, who
were still scouring the plains and sweeping away the
live-stock of the settlers so recently as the year 18S-i.
Thus all real progress was retarded .till the country was
opened up by the development of railway enterprise
ARGENTINA
403
during tlie last two decades. Founded in 15*73 l»y
Cabrera in the upper valley of the Rio Priniero, Cordoba
continued to sleep away its days even long after the
expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767. But since, the com-
pletion of the lines bringing it into connnunication with
the outer world its expansion has been remarkable. It
already ranks for population next to Buenos Ayres and
CATHEDRAL ill-
liosario, and is rapidly becoming the chief centre of
trade, the industries and intellectual life in the interior
of the country. The university, dating from the
eighteenth century, was reconstituted on a liberal basis
in 1870, and here are also several other scientific and
literary institutions, notal)ly an observatory, to which
astronomers are indebted for a valuable chart of ihe
southern constellations. But the mint, which formerly
coined the gold from the neighbouring uplands, has been
404 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
closed since the mines have ceased to be profitably
worked.
The attempts made to suppy Cordoba with water for
irrigation and general purposes by constructing a huge
dam across the bed of the Rio Primero have not been
entirely successful, and nearly caused the destruction of
the city in 1890 when, after a heavy downpour, a great
part of the contents of the reservoir escaped and swept
away several hundred houses. But, although greatly
reduced in size, the artificial lake is still 70 feet deep,
and contains 2000 million cubic feet, sufficient for all
local wants, and for the irrigation of over 100,000
acres.
Amongst some of their neighbours, the people of
Cordoba, mostly half-breeds of a somewhat ugly type,
have the reputation of being the greatest thieves and mur-
derers in South America. But the Cordobans retort by
accusing those of Santiago and Santa Fe of all the crimes
under heaven ; and so it is generally throughout the
republic. But the experience of most travellers is that
all alike are rather a kindly, hospitable people, usually
peaceful and well conducted. " Organised bands of ban-
ditti, as they have in Mexico, are quite unknown here,
unless it be in revolution times, when every South
American becomes more or less of a brigand for the
nonce. It is, indeed, creditable to these poor half-breeds
that, left to themselves as they are, they should be so
law -observing and orderly. Mule -trains laden with
silver dollars often make enormous journeys here without
an armed escort being deemed necessary to accompany
them. If the people that inhabit these wild steppes
were of Anglo-Saxon blood, it strikes me that this would
hardly be the case." ^
^ Knight, vol. i. p. 199.
ARGENTINA 405
Buenos Ayres, one of the great cities of the New
World, and capital of Argentina, but not of the State
named from it, was founded in 1535 by Diego de
Mendoza on the south side of the Plate estuary, at the
point where the monotonous shore line is indented by a
little pampean creek appropriately called the Riachuelo
(" Brooklet "). But the surrounding plains were at that
time held by the Querandi, a powerful branch of the
Pampas or Gennaken Indians, who resented the in-
trusion of the w^hites in their territory, and after a- fierce
struggle compelled them to abandon the settlement in
1542. Owing to the hostility of the still more warlike
Charruas, no attempt could be made to gain a footing on
the north (Uruguayan) side, while the safety of the
inland stations above the Parana delta made the posses-
sion of a strong trading-place in the estuary a matter
of urgent necessity. Hence the Spaniards returned in
1580, and under the able command of Juan de Garay
effectively established themselves on the Riachuelo.
Then the military difticulties were followed by fiscal
troubles, caused by the jealousy of the Cadiz and Seville
merchants, who enjoyed a monopoly of the colonial trade
by the Colombian and Peruvian routes. Through their
influence the central government was induced to issue
the famous decree that all merchandise destined for the
Plate estuary should be forwarded by the way of Peru
over the Cordilleras and down the Paraguay river. No
doubt this absurd regulation was partly thwarted by
the contraband trade, which inevitably sprang up in the
Plate river ; but the progress of the colony was greatly
retarded till the year 1776, when the whole of the
Argentine region was divorced from its unnatural
commercial and political dependence on Peru, and con-
stituted a separate Viceroyalty under the Crown. Since
406 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
then Buenos Ayres, despite endless political troubles^
internal strife, financial catastrophes, and epidemics, has
continued to prosper, thanks more to its geographical
position at the entrance of the vast Parana-Paraguay
basin than to any specially favourable conditions of soil
or climate. Indeed the Fuerto, as it was called by its
founder, was no " port " or haven, but an open roadstead
in shallow water exposed to fierce south-easterly gales,
and only in recent times transformed to an artificial port
by the constiniction of docks, basins, breakwaters, and
other extensive harbour-works.
The city, laid out in the usual chess-board plan,
presents little to arrest attention beyond some really
fine public buildings, conspicuous amongst which are the
federal Houses of Parliament, the Post Oftice, Custom
House, Opera House, Cathedral, several banks and rail-
way stations. The terminus of the Great Southern line
is quite a palatial structure, with marble halls and stair-
cases, sculptures, carvings and a noble frontage. But
for the excellently managed tramways radiating in all
directions, traffic would have been difficult along tlie
formerly ill-paved and ill-kept thoroughfares. "Euts
and hollows in which one could lie down and disappear
abound. Several of the roads have never been metalled,
and are still mere earthen tracks. In dry weather they
are inches deep in dust, and when heavy rain comes on,
they are a deep sea of liquid mud." ^
This was in 1887, and since then great improvements
have taken place. The streets are now paved with
asphalt, wood, and quarried stone, and a great drainage
system has also been carried out, thanks to which the
former visitations of yellow fever have almost dis-
appeared, for the climate is not naturally insalubrious,
1 Dr. E. K. P. Edgcunibe, Zqj/n/rus, p. 181.
408 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
though the mortality is still rather high. The water
required for general purposes is brought by an aqueduct
and a very long tunnel from the estuary five miles
higher up, where it is quite fresh ; but the supply is
insufhcient — about 15,000,000 gallons daily — and has
to be supplemented by numerous Artesian wells, some of
which are fed by infiltrations from the Parana, and
appear to be inexhaustible.
Buenos Ayres, capital of the Eepublic, ceased to be
the capital of the province in the year 1882, when the
provincial government was removed to JEnsenada, thirty
miles lower down the Plate estuary. To understand the
cause of this change, it should be stated that, after
joining the confederacy in 1860, Buenos Ayres, the
largest and hy far the wealthiest and most populous of
all the united provinces, became for a time the dominant
power in the republic. She was not only an imperium
in imperio, but aspired to the position of arbitrator and
controler of the destinies of the whole country. But
finding lier supremacy threatened by the steady growth
of the other provinces, and her unconstitutional action
]"esisted 1 »y the National Government, she made an abortive
attempt to secede from the confederacy in 1880, and
again set up for herself as before the year 1860. After
a short and half-hearted struggle the revolt collapsed, the
city of Buenos Ayres w^as constituted a federal district,
like that of Colombia (Washington) in the United
States, and the seat of the provincial administration
transferred in 1882 to Ensenada, which was then re-
named La Plata.
Then was witnessed a remarkable transformation.
The whole energies of the province were concentrated
on the effort to create a new capital worthy of its
unchallenged position, as the most enterprising and in-
410 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AKD TPAVEL
fluential ineniber of the coiifecleracy, and in an incredibly
short time the ol)scure village of Ensenada was changed,
as by the magician's wand, to a stately seat of govern-
ment, with puljlic buildings of every description — a
complete range of departmental structures, legislative
chambers, law-courts, treasury, official residences, railway
stations, and so forth — all planned and executed on quite
a magnificent scale. Harbour works have also been
designed and partly carried out to attract some of the
ever-increasing trade of the estuary, while the interests
of science and letters have been amply provided for by a
university, a well-equipped observatory, and the noble
Museo de la Plata, where is already housed one of the
richest zoological and archaeological collections in the
world. In 1899 the population was estimated at 70,000,
and its enthusiastic citizens already foresee the time when
La Plata will rival the great federal capital itself in size
and opulence. In truth, there would appear to be
ample room for two such cities as Buenos Ayres, on
the vast waterway which washes the shores of an ad-
ministrative department 5000 square miles larger than
England and Wales together, and gives access to one of
the great fluvial basins of the New World.
In the Patagonian territories south of Buenos Ayres
— Rio Negro, Neuquen, Chubut, and Santa Cruz — there
are strictly speaking no urban groups, but only small
and struggling agricultural settlements, such as Carmen
on the Eio Negro, Chos-lfalal, Norquin, and Junin de los
Andes, in the upland pastoral districts at the foot of the
Cordillera ; or else little fishing-stations, such as Fort
Desire, St. Julian, Santa Cruz, and Gallerjos, awaiting the
development of the interior to become busy seaports. Of
all these places the most interesting to Englisli readers
is the Welsh colony of Port Madryn, founded in 1865
AEGENTINA
411
on the nearly land-locked Golfo JVuevo, and connected by
rail with the settlements of Trelcw and Rawson, on the
left bank of tho Lower Chnbut, a little farther south.
Tlie climate is cold and the soil not over-fertile ; but
MU.SEO i>E LA PLATA.
there is plenty of water obtained by capturing- the flooded
stream of the Chubut, and the hard-working settlers
possess the qualities of patience and endurance. So there
is hope that this little " New Wales " may establish itself
permanently on the bleak seaboard of South Patagonia.
But it can scarcely any longer be called a " Welsh
412 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
colony." Not more than half of the inhabitants are of
that nationality, and the finest warehouses are now
owned by Italians. In 1899 over 40,000 acres were
under wheat, and the live-stock (sheep, cattle, and horses)
numbered about 50,000.
Historic Retrospect
For several decades after the declaration of independ-
ence at Buenos A.Yres in 1810, Argentina, which at that
time included the Banda Oriental, that is, the present
republic of Uruguay, constituted a number of semi-
independent states, with little political cohesion, and no
universally recognised central government. This was,
moreover, a period of disastrous foreign wars, of internal
strife, anarchy, and general political confusion, during
which nothing was done to forward the common interests
of the land. Scarcely had the Spaniard disappeared
when Buenos Ayres plunged into an unsuccessful war
with Paraguay (1811).
Then the Banda Oriental, Santa F^, Corrientes, Entre
Eios, and Cordoba declared themselves an autonomous
commonwealth under Artigas, " Protector of the Free "
(1814). In 1828, after the execution of Dorrego,
Governor of Buenos Ayres, a struggle broke out between
the unionists and the federalists. The latter prevailed,
but party words had lost their meaning, and nobody
played the part of a despotic unionist more thoroughly
than the " federalist," Eosas, who, despite of endless
revolts, and the intervention of England and France,
maintained one of the most oppressive dictatorships
recorded in history for a period of twenty years. Even
after his overthrow and escape on board an English
vessel (1852) the intestine convulsions were followed by
ARGENTINA 413
the long and memorable war of the Allies with Paraguay,
complicated with local revolts.
Material Progress — Railway Enterprise
But the expulsion of Eosas may, on the whole, be
regarded as the turning - point in the history of
Argentina, which after that event entered on a period
of comparative rest, which has lasted to the present
time not seriously broken except by the Buenos Ayres
episode and financial troubles due to over-speculation,
and a somewhat reckless expenditure of the public funds
and foreign loans. Nevertheless substantial progress has
certainly been made, thanks to the steady increase of
the population both by immigration and a relatively
high birth-rate, and to the stimulus given to trade and
agriculture by the construction of roads, railways, and
telegraphs. Some of the railways may have been built
at an extravagant outlay — over £20,000 per mile where
£4000 or £5000 should have sufficed — but the fact
remains that nearly 10,000 miles have been completed
(1899), and so planned that all the provinces and almost
every important town in the country already enjoy the
advantage of direct communication by rail with the
capital. As in many parts of North America the
locomotive has often preceded the carriage roads, and
the construction of railways has been found more easy
and economical in extensive alluvial tracts, where no
materials are available for road-building. In 1898 the
total capital invested in railway enterprise amounted
to £105,000,000, while the gross receipts exceeded
£6,000,000 and the expenses £3,200,000, showing a
return of about 3 per cent on the outlay.
414 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Agriculture and Stock-breeding
Argentina is at present almost exclusively an agri-
cultural and trading country, as shown by the fact that
in 1897 the mineral exports had fallen to the insignifi-
cant sum of £33,000 while tliose derived from the land
(corn, cattle, hides, wool, etc.) exceeded £19,000,000, to
which should be added £384,000 of forest products.
Moreover, nearly all the industries — flour -mills, wine
ftictories, distilleries, breweries and sugar -mills — are
directly concerned with such agricultural produce as the
corn, vine, and sugar-cane crops. Even these more or
less primitive industries, and tillage itself, play quite a
subordinate part compared with stock-breeding, which
must long continue to be the chief source of national
wealth. Thus, not more than 15 million acres are at
present under cultivation, while the actual extent of
arable land is estimated at 240 millions.
But most of this vast area is useless for tillage, owing
to the deficient rainfall, and the limited supply of
running waters available for irrigation purposes. Hence
the greater part of the land remains under grass, and
while husbandry in the strict sense of the term is slowly
developed, there seems to be no limit to the capacities
of the country for sheep and cattle farming. In 1898
the stock of sheep was returned at over 80 millions,
of cattle at 22, horses nearly 5, and other animals 4
millions, and in the same year animals and their
products were exported to tlie value of £15,000,000,
while the exports of farm produce, such as wheat and
maize, scarcely exceeded £4,500,000. In the general
movement of the foreign exchanges, the balance of trade
is greatly in favour of the United Kingdom, whose
exports to Argentina, chiefly textiles and hardware, were
ARGENTINA 415
valued in 1S97 at £7,250,000 compared with imports
£2,600,000 in the same year.
Government Political Situation
The Constitution of Argentina dates only from 1853,
the year after the expulsion of Eosas, and its character
is somewhat indicated by the change then luade in the
official designation of the country, which was formerly
known as the " Provincias Unidas del Rio de la Plata,"
but is now simply the " Republica Argentina." In other
words, despite the apparent triumph of the federalists
in the battlefield, the unionist or centralising principle
has been adopted as the basis of the present Constitution,
which is somewhat closely modelled on that of the
United States. The executive is entrusted to a President
elected for six years by representatives of the fourteen
provinces, equal to double the number of senators and
deputies combined. A Vice-President, elected in the
same way, holds the office of Chairman of the Senate,
but enjoys no political power, whereas the President is
ex officio commander-in-chief of the troops, and also
appoints to all civil, military, and judicial offices.
Neither is re-eligible, and both must be natives of
Argentina, and Eoman Catholics.
The legislative functions are exercised by a National
Congress comprising a Senate and a House of Deputies.
The Senate, numbering thirty, that is, two for each of the
fourteen provinces and two for the capital, are returned
by the legislatures of the several provinces, and by a
college of electors in the capital. Since 1898 the
deputies are elected for four years, in the proportion of
one for every 33,000 inhabitants, one-half retiring every
two years, while one-third of the Senate is renewed
416 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
every three years. The Ministry, which is appointed and
controlled by the President, comprises eight " Secretaries
of State," one each for the Interior, Foreign Affairs,
Finance, War, Justice, Agriculture, Marine, and Public
Works. All these functionaries are subsidised, the
President receiving £3600, the Vice-President £2400,
each of the Secretaries £1800, and each member of
Congress £1200 per annum.
Although called " provinces," the federal divisions are
really self-governing States, whose constitution is almost
identical with that of the United States. The governors
enjoy extensive powers, in the execution of which they
are independent of the central authorities. Nor are
they appointed by the President, but elected for terms
of three and four years by the people, who also elect
their own legislative assemblies, and generally enjoy a
large measure of autonomy, even to the extent of con-
tracting internal and foreign loans on their own responsi-
bility. But by the federalisation of the old Buenos Ayres
municipality, in which are concentrated one-sixth of the
whole population and over two -thirds of the foreign
exchanges, the hands of the central government have
been greatly strengthened, and the ambitious aspirations
of the province of Buenos Ayres permanently check-
mated, so that the several provincial divisions can be
trusted with the entire management of their own affairs,
without risk to the stability of the National Government.
It is doubtful whether any serious revolts will again
take place, because the self-governing provinces have
been deprived of any motive, and Buenos Ayres of the
power, to rebel or secede. But military intrigues and
local insurrections are always possible amongst such
inflammable populations, and many risings did actually
take place in Santiago, Corrientes, Catamarca, Tucuman,
ARGENTINA 417
Santa Fe, and in Buenos Ayres itself during the financial
crisis of the years 1890-94.
Religion — Education — Defences
As might be inferred fr(jm the fact that the President
must be a Eonian Catholic, Catholicism is recognised by
the Constitution as the State religion. Nevertheless
absolute tolerance of aU other beliefs prevails both in
principle and in practice throughout the republic. Even
the Jews are unmolested, and the flourishing agricultural
settlement founded by the late Baron Hirsch as a refuge
for those driven from Kussia by the Anti-Semitic wave
of persecution, is allowed the free exercise of its religion,
as well as the enjoyment of religious instruction in its
own schools. It may be mentioned that this interesting
philanthropic experiment has so far been fairly successful,
and the Jewish settlers have here shown that they can
be ffood farmers as well as traders and bankers. In
1898' the colony, founded in 1891, had a population of
8000 Prussian Jews, who had brought 80,000 acres
under cultivation (chiefly wheat and maize), and owned
about 15,000 head of cattle and horses. The settlements
are not contiguous, but scattered over different parts of
Santa Fe, Entre Rios, and Buenos Ayres, and are under
the somewhat strict control of the Society appointed to
administer the original capital of £2,000,000.
Primary education is absolutely free, secular and
compulsory for all children between six and fourteen
years of age. The elementary schools are provided for
by special taxes under the Education Acts, supplemented
by large grants from the National Government. As
much as £2,000,000 are annually applied in this way
to the support of about 3750 schools with a total attend -
VOL. I 2 E
418 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
ance in 1898 of 266,000. Secondary and the higher
education are provided for by sixteen Government
lyceums, thirty -five normal schools, several technical
institutions and three universities, — Buenos Ayres, La
Plata, and Cordoba ; these last with faculties of law,
medicine, and engineering, and a collective attendance of
about 2500.
Besides the External Debt and other public liabilities
of over £80,000,000, the Provincial debts fall little
short of £20,000,000, including arrears of interest,
and the Municipal debts to about £3,000,000. Thus
the total indebtedness exceeds £100,000,000, a heavy
burden for a population of not much more than
4,000,000. Yet nearly £3,000,000 are devoted to
defensive purposes. The land forces comprise nearly
10,000 effectives of all arms, and a national guard of
480,000, most of whom now receive military training.
With a view to possible hostilities with Chili over the
boundary question, the navy has recently been strength-
ened, and now comprises four coast defence armour-clads,
six armed cruisers, ten smaller cruisers and gunboats,
besides several destroyers and torpedo boats, with crews
of about 5000 men.
th'
Br^
lar
Eiol
Bra
whi
CHAPTEE XII
URUGUAY
Extent, Area, Population— Physical Features— The Cuchillas— Hydro-
gra]ihy— The Uruguay River — Climate— Flora — Fauna — Inhabitants
— The Charruas — The Gauchos and Uruguayans — Topogra])hy —
Historic Retrospect — FMihvay Enterprise — Resources — The Meat
Industries — Government — Education — Finance.
Extent, Area, Population
Uruguay, smallest of the South American States, has at
least the advantage of possessing well-defined and un-
contested frontiers. All boundary questions have long
been settled, nor could any have arisen except on the
north side, where this fiery little republic is conterminous
with the Brazilian province of Eio Grande do Sul. On
the west the line of demarcation towards the Argentine
province of Entre Eios follows the course of the Uruguay
river from 30° S. lat. to the Parana delta, while the
southern and eastern shores are washed by the waters of
the Plate estuary and of the Atlantic as far as the
Brazilian maritime district of Albardas de Silveira, and
farther north by the Lagoa Mirini to the mouth of the
Eio Jaguarao. This river serves as the frontier towards
Brazil nearly to the Upper Eio Negro valley, beyond
which the line coincides with the crest of the Serra
420
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Sauta Anna, and then with the course of the Eio Qua-
raiin (Quareim) to its confluence with the Uruguay.
As thus delineated, Uruguay has an area of a little
over 72,000 square miles, with a population which, in
the absence of any official census, was estimated in 1898
at 827,000, distributed over the nineteen departments as
under : — -
Departments.
Monte Video
Canelones
Colonia
Salto .
Soriano
Paysandu
San Jose
Florida .
Durazno
Cerro-Largo
Tacuarembo
ilinas
Roelia .
Maldonado
Artigas .
Treinta y Tre
Rivera .
Rio Negro
Flores .
Area in sq. miles.
Pop. (est. 1S9S
256
264,838
1,833
68,553
2,192
41,021
4,863
37,586
3,560
36,369
5,115
40,431
2,687
34,441
4,673
36,024
5,525
30,064
5,753
29,909
8,074
27,929
4,844
28,401
4,280
25,976
1,584
23,086
4,392
21,716
3,686
22,615
3,790
18,767
3,269
24,369
1,744
15,390
Total
r2,iio
827,485
As in most of Argentina, the aborigines never were
numerous, and consisted generally of fierce wild tribes,
such as the Charruas, who, like the prairie Indians, mixed
little with the white intruders. Few if any full-blood
natives have survived the racial wars, which were carried
with little intermission far into the eighteenth century.
Hence, with the exception of a few groups of half-breeds
resembling the Argentine Gauchos, and called by that
name, though of less wild and restless habits, the present
URUGUAY 421
inliabitants of Uruguay may be regarded as of tolerably
pure European descent. Nearly a fourth are even
relatively recent arrivals — Spaniards, Italians, French,
and especially Basques from both sides of the Pyrenees,
while the rest are sprung from the early Spanish and
Basque settlers. The Teutonic element has never been
largely represented, and the English and Germans form
but a slight percentage of the present inhabitants of
Uruguay, where Spanish is the general medium of inter-
course, understood if not spoken by all classes.
Physical Features — The Cuchillas
From the orographic standpoint Uruguay belongs, not
to the Argentine pampas formation but to the Brazilian
mountain system. Like the Andean Cordilleras, the
Brazilian uplands fall gradually southwards, and in
Uruguay some of the ranges scarcely exceed 2000 feet in
height. But their geological connection with those of
South Brazil is recognised even in the popular nomencla-
ture, which calls these ranges not sierras but cuchillas, that
is " knives," although the crests are not nearly so sharp or
jagged as those of Kio G-rande do Sul. In fact they are
for the most part rather gently rounded summits, which,
however, terminate in many places in bare, rocky heights
rising above the zone of herbaceous vegetation. The
whole surface of the land is intersected and broken by
these irregular cuchillas, where it is impossible to detect
any uniform system or general trend. Thus the Cuchilla
de Haedo, which traverses the north-western districts in
a south-westerly direction, is separated by the Cibcliilla de
Malhajar, running due east and west, from the Cuchilla
Grande, which wanders in zigzag fashion over the
southern and central departments, throwing off spurs
422 COMPENDIUJNI OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
north-westwards to the Eio Jaguarao, and southwards to
the coast between Monte Video and Maldonado. Here
the Sierra de las Animas terminates seawards in several
bold headlands, of which Monte Video is the most con-
spicuous.
In the north the prevailing formations are granites
and gneiss, often underlying old eruptive matter, and here
the land is mineralised to some extent with auriferous
veins, lead and copper deposits, but apparently nowhere
very abundantly. Along the banks of the Uruguay and
some other rivers occurs the so-called jjiedra china, a
flinty gravel of unorganic origin, besides great quantities
of rough agates looking like large flints. These are
largely exported to Germany, where they are manu-
factured into innumerable little pebble boxes, letter-
weights, and other fancy objects. Here also is met another
natural curiosity, the cocos de mina (" mineral coconuts "),
hollow crystalline clusters, which occasionally explode and
are then said by the natives to have ripened. Such
crystal pebbles, often beautifully coloured, are found in
multitudes, especially in the rocky bed of the Quaraim,
where they may be picked up in handfuls, when the
river runs dry. In the grassy argillaceous plains every-
where intersected and limited by the Cuchillas, are found
embedded the remains of the Megatherium and other
extinct animals, presenting the same types as those of
the Argentine Tertiary beds.
Hydrography — The Uruguay River
Apart from a few insignificant coast-streams, such as
the San Jos4, which enters the estuary at Monte Video,
all the running waters find their way either to the Lagoa
Merim or to the left Ijank of the Uruguay. The Merim
URUGUAY 423
basin, which sends its overflow through the Eio S.
Gonzalo to the Lagoa dos Patos in Brazilian territory,
receives nearly all the eastern drainage of the Cuchilla
Grande mainly through the Bio Cebollati, with its tribu-
taries, the Bios Gutlerra, Ulimar, del Parado, and a few-
others. None of these are navigable, and are fringed
along their lower courses by sedgy marshes, which during
the Hoods are transformed to shallow lagoons.
By far the largest affluent of the Uruguay is the
Bio jVcgro, which, with its numerous ramifications —
Tacuarcmlio, Mala, Yi, Grande, and others, drains about
half of the whole territory. Kising within the Brazilian
frontier it flows for about 280 miles between the
Cuchillas Haedo and Grande south-westwards to the
main stream at Soriano. It is navigable above the con-
fluence as far as Mercedes, and a scheme of canalisation
has been proposed, which if carried out would enable
large vessels to ascend as far as the Tacuareinbo, besides
supplying the irrigation waters required to bring large
tracts of prairie under cultivation.
The Uruguay, from which the republic takes its
name, takes its rise in the Brazilian coast rano;e known
as the Serra Geral, within 50 miles of the Atlantic. Its
upper course, formed by the junction of the Pelotas, the
Santa, Anna and the Maromhas, flows through South Brazil
nearly due west to its junction with the Peperi Guazu,
where it bends round to the south-west and south, and
becomes the frontier stream between Brazil (Eio Grande de
Sul) and Argentina (Misiones, Corrientes, and Entre Kios).
Below the confluence of the Ihicuy Guazu, largest of
its Brazilian affluents, the stream, here flowing nearly
due south, leaves Brazilian territory, and for the rest of
its course forms the boundary between Uruguay and
Argentina. At Sal to, the " Falls," the channel is studded
424 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
with rocks and reefs, permanently arresting the naviga-
tion for large vessels, and these obstructions are followed
1 2 miles lower down by the Scdto Grande, the " Great
Falls," which, however, are falls only at low water. They
appear to take their name, not so much from their size
as in contrast to the Salto Chico, or '• Little Falls," which
occur 9 miles farther on, and offer but slight impediment
to ordinary river craft. In the lower reaches below Fray
Bentos the Uruguay assumes the aspect of a lake, throw-
ing off lateral branches to the Parana delta, and entering
the head of the Plate estuary, a broad stream from 6 to 1
miles wide. Here the right bank is low and periodically
flooded, while the steep cliffs and bluffs on the opposite
side rise well above the highest inundations, and are here
and there crowned with picturesque clumps of trees.
With a total estimated length of 960 miles and an
•average width of over half a mile, the Uruguay is
generally accessible to sea-going vessels for 200 miles to
Paysandu, and at times for 400 miles to and beyond
Santa Eosa on the Brazilian frontier. But it is of little
use for purposes of navigation between Salto and Santa
Eosa, where there is a total fall of 150 feet in about 100
miles. During the annual floods, which occur generally
in the months of August and September, and are caused
by the heavy rainfall in the Santa Catharina, Eio Grande
do Sul, and Misiones uplands, all the lower reaches are
laid under water on the Argentine side, while the rise is
as much as 50 feet higher up, where the current is con-
tracted, as between Concordia and Salto.
Climate
Notwithstanding its relatively small extent, Uruguay,
owing to its maritime position, comprises two climatic
URUGUAY 425
j5ones — an oceanic and an inland. In the former, which
is generally more equable, the seasons are less sharply
distinguished, the summer heats being less intense, the
winters less severe on the seaboard than in the interior.
In the northern districts and on the central plains the
heat is extremely oppressive during the months of
December, January, and February, while in June and
July the glass often falls 5° or 6° below freezing-point.
But for the whole country the normal range of the
temperature is limited to about 36° to 100° Fahr. The
climate may thus be described as warm, or sub-tropical,
which answers fairly well to the lie of the land between
30° and 35° S. lat. The chief drawbacks are the frequent
storms, and the sudden shifting of the temperature caused
by the south-western 'pamyeros, which, unchecked by any
mountain barriers, blow with great fury over the whole
land.
From the standpoint of European colonisation it is
important to note the differences of temperature under
corresponding latitudes in both hemispheres. Thus
Monte Video is much cooler than Biskra, and Salto than
Alexandria, which is all in favour of Uruguay, where
the Mediterranean settlers thrive well and even better
than in the home-lands. Travellers never fail to notice
the robust constitution, the broad chests and muscular
frames of the Uruguayan drovers and " cowboys " employed
on the ranchos and in the tinned-meat factories, and in
all these respects they are certainly far superior to the
Berbers, the Egyptians, and South Europeans. Of course
in comparisons of this sort the question of diet cannot be
overlooked. But if the easterns have perhaps too little,
the westerns may be said to have too much meat — meat
and nothing but meat, fresh or jerked, from one end of
the year to the other.
■42 6 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
In general there is sufficient moisture for stock-
breeding, but not for tillage, except in some favoured
districts. The annual rainfall no doubt averages about
40 inches, but it is very unequally distributed both as
to localities and seasons. By far the greater portion of
the discharge is brought by the so-called pamjoero sucio
(" dirty pampero "), which prevails in the summer months,
and is accompanied by torrential downpours. " The sheets
of water, that come down perfectly straight all through
the day and night without a break, are accompanied by
equally continuous thunder and lightning, which seem to
work their way round the heavens and to box the entire
compass. The thunder is one unceasing muffled roll,
out of which burst sudden fierce claps of deafening
violence ; the lightning playing meantime almost un-
interruptedly at every point of the horizon, and leaping
forth now and then into a OTeat scorching flame, which
for a moment lights up the whole world with a lurid
blue and yellow. The darkness, too, almost equals that
of a dense London fog ; while the heat seems to increase
rather than to yield to the storm, and one sits in a pro-
longed vapour-bath, with the most trying sense of physical
prostration and depression of spirits." ^
riora
Herbaceous growths prevail to such an extent over
all other vegetable forms, that the greater part of
Uruguay may be described as a continuation of the
Argentine pampas, the chief difference being that the
land is more broken and hilly, while the grasses are
more stunted, or at least shorter and sweeter. Even the
unsociable ombu (Ficus omhu), the really characteristic
^ The Great Silver River, p. 130.
URUGUAY 427
tree of the Argentine plains, from which, however, it
has mostly vanished, forms also a conspicuous feature of
the Uruguayan landscape, thriving where no other tree
will take root, and affording a grateful shade to the
scattered farmsteads. In recent years the resemblance
between the two floras has been increased by the presence
of the Australian eucalyptus, which has been successfully
introduced on both sides of the Plate estuary. Trees,
such as the willow and poplar, the inga (a bardy and
leafy mimosa), besides the tacuara (a bamboo of vigorous
habit) fringe the river-banks, while a distinctly arborescent
vegetation begins to make its appearance towards the
Brazilian frontier. Here flourish several species of palm,
especially the yatai (Cocos yatai), the araucaria and some
other forms characteristic of the Brazilian campos and
selvas.
But herbage remains the distinctive feature of the
Uruguayan flora, and* of such excellent quality ' are the
natural growths that the whole region has been described
as an ideal grazing-ground. Throughout the central and
southern departments little is to be seen except endless
ranges of grassy hills, " splendid downlands rolling on in
great billows league after league, and bearing a marked
resemblance to our own Dorset downs at home, only cast
in a rather larger mould, the finest pasture-land simply
waiting for men to come and run up fences, and needing
al:)Solutely nothing more to make the best of grazing
farms. Elsewhere one hears of the toil of settlers in
clearing their land, labour which in many parts means
an initial cost of from £5 to £15 an acre. But on the
rolling down of Uruguay man is called upon to do
nothing, for the land is provided ready for him, with the
best possible permanent pasturage laid down for his use.
On these endless grassy downs there are no trees, save
428 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
just along the gullies of the little streams, and about the
estancias (farm-steads), which dot the plains at intervals
of about every three miles." ■*
Fauna
As in long settled regions, such as Great Britain and
China, most of the wild fauna has already disappeared
from Uruguay, and given place to domestic animals — •
chiefly horned cattle, sheep, and horses — all introduced
by the white settlers and now covering the whole land
in countless multitudes. Even the rhea has almost
ceased to roam the plains in the w ild state, and is now
for the most part confined within enclosures, forming
" ostrich farms," like those of South Africa. Never-
theless the indigenous fauna, which comprised both
Argentine and Brazilian types, is still represented in the
northern woodlands by the howling monkey and by
caymans in the upper waters of the Uruguay, while the
rattle-snake still lurks in the rocky recesses of the
southern seaboard. Here also is met a land crab of
burrowing habits, like the Cancer ruricola.
It is noteworthy that European poultry do not thrive
in Uruguay, where several species of the native avifauna
still survive in considerable numbers. Large flocks are
seen of the widely-diffused teru-tero, a handsome bird of
the lapwing family, but disliked by sportsmen as "a
common informer," warning other game of their approach.
As on the pampas, every little eminence is surmounted
by the tiny burrowing owl, blinking away in the full
blaze of the sun ; large tawny-winged vultures keep silent
watch on the wide- spreading branches of the solitary
ombu, and the beautiful white heron lends animation
to the scene in the flooded marshy depressions.
- Zephyrus, p. 153.
UEUGUAY 429
Inhabitants — The Oharruas
In pre-Columbian times Uruguay was occupied by
several distinct ethnical groups, all living in a state of
nature, or at least at a low stage of culture little removed
from sheer savagery. Such were the Minuanos, the
Boanes (Bohanes), Yaros, and Chanas (Chanases), some of
whom were, no doubt, of Guarani stock, but others,
perhaps the majority, were either allied to the Pampean
Querandies, or else distantly connected with the Parana
and Gran Chaco natives. All these were confined to
the western and northern districts — the banks and
islands of the Uruguay and the wooded tracts towards
the present Brazilian frontier — while the rest of the
land was roamed by the numerous and powerful Charrua
nation. The Guarani tribes, for the most part of a mild
and gentle disposition, were soon reduced and absorbed
by the Spanish settlers, or else exterminated by the
Charruas, who were dominant in the whole region from
the Atlantic to the Uruguay. All the riverside groups,
however, are not yet quite extinct, and in his mono-
graph on the Chanas, the Argentine ethnologist, Lafone-
Quevedo, locates the surviving Yaros east and west of
the mouth of the Uruguay, and some Chanas south of
the Parana delta, and also shows that these Chanas were
not of Guarani speech, as hitherto supposed.-*^
That the Charruas were fierce nomads, and perhaps
even cannibals, like many of the Brazilian coast tribes,
appears from the record of their very first conflict with the
whites. When Juan Diaz de Solis revisited the Plate
estuary in 1515, he landed with some of his followers
at the mouth of the Eio Martin Chico on the north side,
and here the whole party were cut off, killed, and, as
^ Los Indios Chanases y su Leiujua, Buenos Ayres, 1899.
•130 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
was reported, eaten by a band of these natives, who are
described by all the early Spanish and Portuguese writers
as amongst the most cruel and ferocious of the South
American aborigines. But nobody questioned their
valour and dauntless love of independence, disputing
every inch of their territory, first with the rude weapons
of the tribe — bow and arrows, club or stone axe — and
afterwards mounted on the horses and with the fire-arms
they had wrested from the intruders. In the struggle,
prolonged over three centuries, the whole nation perished,
preferring death to loss of freedom.
About the year 1750 the Charruas had already been
driven north of the Eio Negro, where they formed an
alliance with the Minuanos from the Parana, and were
thus enabled to continue a guerilla warfare which Azara
declared had cost the Spaniards more blood than the
conquest of Mexico and Peru. They were finally van-
quished and all but exterminated in 1831, when a few
of the survivors were sold to an itinerant showman, and
exhibited like wild beasts in European menageries. The
last full-blood Charrua, one of these captives, is stated
to have died in a Paris hospital towards the middle of
the nineteenth century. It is, however, asserted by M.
de Saint Adolphe, that at an early date some of their
bands, harassed by the Paulistas, who enslaved all they
could lay hands on, took refuge in the forests of South
Brazil, " where a few scattered groups are still met." ^
The Gauchos and Uruguayans
In any case there would appear to be a strain of
Charrua blood in the Uruguayan Gauchos, if not in
many of the Uruguayans themselves. Thus might be
1 Op. cit. vol. i. p. 272.
URUGUAY 431
explained their great physical strength, their too often
misapplied energy, and especially the almost incredible
cruelty and ferocity displayed first in the war of inde-
pendence, and afterwards during the interminable politi-
cal conflicts of the Color ados and BUmcos, " Eeds and
AVhites." On the left bank of the Uruguay, between
Paysandu and Salto, travellers notice a conspicuous bluff
or headland called the Mesa de Artigas, and are told
that it is so named from General Artigas, " Founder of
the Uruguayan Nation," who, in 1814, during the war
of independence had his captives sewn up in ox-hides
and rolled down the cliff side at this spot into the
swirling stream below. Afterwards this inborn spirit
of savagery was fomented not only by the civil strife
and wars with Brazil and Argentina, but also by the
meat industry, which has transformed the whole land to
a huge shaml)]es, " making the air hot and heavy with
the smell of blood, and uien callously unconcerned at its
sight. One of the ugliest traits of the uneducated
native of these countries is his perfect indifference to
the sufferings of the brute creation ; his comparative
disregard of human life is, with such a training, not
unintelligible." ^ Nevertheless, with the cessation of the
aimless faction fights an improvment has set in ; the
people have acquired more restful habits, and even in
]\Ionte Video, centre of countless political disturbances,
observers already notice a less restless and more dignified
bearing in the upper classes.
Topography — Historic Retrospect
In Uruguay nearly all the groups of population
except Monte Video and one or two other seaports or
1 Eumbokl, p. 153,
432
CO.MPEXDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TltAVEL
mining-stations are directly connected with the meat
industry. Hence they present the aspect rather of huge
factories of a very rough and even repulsive character
than of towns in the ordinary sense of the term. Hence
also most of these places — Fray Bentos, Mercedes,
Paysandu, Salto — are situated either on the Uruguay or
on the navigable parts of the Eio Xegro, while the
i
MONTE VIDEO.
interior, l)eing mostly given up to stock-breeding, is
almost destitute of large towns. In the whole country
there are scarcely a dozen places with over 5000 in-
ha1:)itants, as shown in the subjoined table, where the
populations are estimated for the year 1898 : —
Monte Video
. 252,000
Villa de Melo .
8,000
Paysandu
26,000
Rocha
.8,000
Saito
15,000
Santa Lucia
7.000
Mercedes .
11,000
Fray Bentos
7,000
San Jose .
10,000
Maldonado
6,000
UKUGUAY 433
Monte Video, which for a time gave its name to the
republic of which it is the capital, is of relatively recent
origin, yet already one of the great cities of the Southern
Continent, with a population (1899) of over a quarter
of a million, or nearly one-third of all the inhabitants
of the State. Its convenient position near the entrance
of the Plate estuary explains a commercial prosperity
which could be arrested neither by political troubles, nor
epidemics, nor sieges, one of which, lasting for nearly
ten years (1842-51), has earned for Monte Video the
title of the " Xew Troy."
The history of this place is the history of the Bancla
Oriental, the name by which the Uruguay lands were
formerly known, and are still often called by the sur-
rounding peoples. The expression, meaning " East Side,"
has reference to the position of this region east of the
Eio Uruguay relatively to the Band a Occidental, " West
Side," that is the Argentine lands proper, on the opposite
side of the river. But owing to the determined hostility
of the warlike Charrua aborigines, the Banda Oriental
remained unsettled till the year 1680, when the Portu-
guese founded the military station of Colonia (Colonia-do-
Santissimo-Sacramento) opposite Buenos Ayres, with the
view of rounding off their southern possessions by the
annexation of the Estado Cisplatino, as they called this
region. The very next year the place was seized by a
Spanish expedition from Buenos Ayres, and all the
settlers — men, women and children — put to the sword.
From that time till the Eevolution the Banda Oriental
continued to be hotly contested by the two rival powers,
and Colonia was not finally abandoned by Brazil till
1827, when it was occupied by the Monte Yideans.
Monte Video itself had been founded in 1726 by
the Spaniards for the avowed object of outflanking the
VOL. I 2 F
URUGUAY 435
Portuguese of Colonia, and remained little more than a
military outpost of Buenos Ayres till the year 1778,
when it entered on a period of great commercial develop-
ment as a free port, thanks especially to the abolition
of the commercial monopoly of Cadiz. Settlers were
now attracted from all quarters, and by the close of the
eighteenth century Monte Video had become the largest
trading-place in South America.
Then ensued over half a century of colonial and
foreign wars, the capture of the city in 1807 by the
English, who, however, were obliged to withdraw after
the defeat of General Whitelock at Buenos Ayres ; the
expulsion of the Spaniards in 1815 ; the occupation of
the place by the Portuguese in 1817, followed by the
incorporation of Cisplatina in the Brazilian Empire
(1824); the overthrow of the imperialists (1827), and
the recognition of the independence of Uruguay both by
the Brazilians and Argentines by the treaty of Eio de
Janeiro (August 1828).
But this treaty, brought about by the intervention
of England, was displeasing to the Argentines, who had
always looked on the Banda Oriental as belonging
politically to the Plate domain, and had co-operated in
the expulsion of the Brazilians, not in order to establish
its autonomy, but to effect its reunion with the Con-
federacy. On the accession of Eosas to power Monte
Video became the refuge of those opposed to the tyrant's
oppressive rule, and hostilities were precipitated Ijetween
the two States when Uruguay espoused the cause of
personal liljerty, and proclaimed the free navigation of
the Argentine waters. Aided by the Italian volunteers
under Garibaldi, and Ijy the British and French fleets
in the estuary, the " New Troy " successfully held out
against the Buenos Ayres forces under General Oribe.
•436 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
But the conclusion of peace in 1853 brought little rest
to the country, which for a time formed one of the three
allies in the war against Paraguay (18 65-70), and has
continued to be torn by party strife down to the present
time. So recently as August 25, 1897, President Borda,
a " Ked," was assassinated by Arredondo, a " White," in
the streets of Monte Video, and since then there have
been a cowp cVitat, disturbances in the provinces and a
military revolt in the capital, where a state of siege was
declared and British marines landed to protect the
Consulate in July 1898. Amnesties have since been
granted to the civil and military ringleaders, and in
1899 order had been generally restored throughout the
republic.
Monte Video itself has suffered much less from these
convulsions than might ba supposed. Its trade, wealth,
and population continue steadily to increase, and it is
at present really a tine city, presenting an imposing
appearance both from the water and from the crest of
the neighbouring Cerro, that is the " Green Hill," nearly
500 feet high, from which it takes its name. There is
a large cathedral in poor style, but also a beautiful
church of the Immaculate Conception, and several of
the public buildings — Exchange, Custom House, Post
Office, Law Courts, and University — have some good
architectural features.
Unfortunately the harbour or roadstead is both
shallow and exposed to the full fury of the south-eastern
trade -winds. Some improvements have, however, been
lately carried out, including piers, wharves, repairing
docks, and the removal of the quarantine station to
Flores Island twelve miles off the coast. But the plans
presented by an English engineer for the enlargement of
the port by the construction of a breakwater, docks, and
URUGUAY 437
other harbour works at a cost of £3,000,000, are for
the present beyond the resources of the State. Water,
sufficient for present requirements, is brought in pipes
from the Kio Santa Lucia, a headstream of the San
Juan, a distance of 36 miles, and tramways are laid
down on all the thoroughfares, which run in all directions
to the suburbs, and are disposed in the usual chessboard
fashion. The government buildings, however, are erected
diagonally across the line of streets, thus appearing to
obstruct the public ways " in a manner that by local
cynics is said to be emblematical of the spirit in which
business is sometimes conducted within their walls." ^
At the entrance of the Plate estuary the little port
of Maldonado gives access to the town of Minas, so called
because it is the centre of a mineral district, where the
auriferous quartz veins are worked by a few industrious
gold-hunters, but yield poor returns. Being sheltered
from the east winds by a projecting headland, Maldonado
affords safer anchorage than Monte Video, but stands too
far apart from the great ocean highways to attract much
shipping. Of the vessels belonging to some twenty
Atlantic steamship companies, which call regularly at
Monte Video, scarcely half-a-dozen find it worth their
while to turn aside now and then and visit Maldonado.
iSTorth of Maldonado the marshy shores of the Atlantic
and the Merim lagoon are scarcely inhabitable ; and
here the only places of note are Rocha, near Cape Santa
Maria ; Nico Perez, terminus of the railway, which is
eventually to connect the Capital with Eio Grande do
Sul ; and Artigas, near the mouth of the frontier Eio
Jaguarao, which perpetuates the memory of tlie revolu-
tionary hero, whose exploits have already been referred to.
Of the desolate and dangerous seaboard between
^ R. Crawford, op. cit. p. 18.
438 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Maldonado and the Brazilian frontier a vivid picture is
given by Mr. Knight : " The climate, the colour of the
clear sky, and the aspect of the vegetation showed us
that we had indeed left the tropics. Very different all
appeared after torrid Eio, one thousand miles to the
northward. It was a low shore, with sandy dunes and
hills of no great altitude in the background ; a desert-
looking country where thistles and aloes seemed especially
to thrive. Of ill repute, too, is all this wild coast from
here to the Brazilian frontier, and a terror to mariners.
The currents of the ocean are powerful and inconstant ;
there are few landmarks, and disasters to vessels are
frequent. On the shore among the surf one can perceive
the skeletons of many ill-fated ships, as one coasts along
the dreary sand-banks. The only inhabitants are wild
G-auchos, professional and skilful wreckers when not
employed in ravaging their native country, under the
banner of one or other of those rival guerilla chieftains
who are ever contesting who shall next be the chief
magistrate of revolutionary Uruguay" {op. cit. vol. i. p. 99).
Between Monte Video and the Uruguay estuary the
only noteworthy place is the old Portuguese settlement
of Colonia, which stands at the mouth of the little Eio
Martin Chico, where De Solis was cut off by the
Charruas. In the estuary, where it narrows to about a
mile, the port of Higueritas has the advantage of a well-
sheltered harbour facing the mouth of the Parana Guazu
(" Great Parana "), that is, the main branch of the Parana
delta.
At the head of the estuary, where the Uruguay is
joined by the Ptio Negro, is the old station of Soriano,
which dates from the year 1624, and was here founded
to protect the Ghana natives from their hereditary foes,
the Charrua Indians (see above). The Chanas appear
URUGUAY 439
to have already been evangelised at this time, and the
ruins are still shown of the church built for them by
the Jesuits. Fray Bentos, on the site of another old
mission in the same district a short distance north of
Soriano, has become one of the most flourishing centres
of the meat business in the world. The factory founded
herein 1863 for the preparation of " Liebig's Extract"
has grown into a small town, employing over 2000 hands,
and at times treating the cattle drawn from all the
surrounding districts at the rate of about 1000a day.
Higher up follow the two other great establishments
of Paysandu and Salto, both devoted exclusively to the
meat-preserving business. • Paysandu, on the bluff nearly
opposite the Argentine town of Colon, had also a religi-
ous origin, having been founded as a missionary station
by the " Padre Sandu " in 1772. But the meek Guarani
neophytes have long been replaced by lusty Gaucho
drovers and slaughterers, and although destroyed by the
Brazilians in 1864, the "city of tongues" is already,
next to the capital, the largest place in the republic.
Up to this point the river is accessible to vessels of
from 500 to 600 tons burden, and Paysandu also enjoys
the advantage of railway communication both with the
capital by a junction with the central line at Paso de los
Toros, and by the Midland line with Salto, wdiich stands
at the head of the deep sea navigation about 90 miles
higher up. Its speciality is the ox-tongue preserving
business, which is largely in the hands of British
capitalists. But it is a mistake to suppose that all the
" Paysandu tongues " exported to England are tinned in
this place. Of over half a million forwarded by the
leading English firm scarcely a tenth part are cured at
Paysandu, though all are shipped at this riverside port.
" Where the cattle are slaughtered, there must the
440 COMPEXDIU.M OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
tongues be preserved. Thej cannot be carried about in
a hot sub-tropical climate before they are tinned, especi-
ally as it is in summer that the saladeros (curers) work,
when the cattle are in prime condition after feeding on
the spring herbage." ^
To British enterprise Salto also owes its prosperity,
and the neighbouring Rio Daiman and the Cuchilla del
Dainian are named from the English pioneer, Mr. Day-
man, whose extensive ranchos line the banks of the main
stream, and stretch inland towards the Cuchillo de Haedo.
As a riverside port Salto dates only from the year 1 8 1 "7,
although long before that time there was a small settle-
ment just below the Falls from which it takes its name.
Since the opening of the railway, by which it communi-
cates through Paysandu and Durazno, its progress has
been continuous, and at present it ranks as the third
place in the republic, practically forming a single city
with Concordia on the opposite (Argentine) side of the
Uruguay.
Eailway Enterprise
Since 1869, when the first short coast line was
opened, railway enterprise has made considerable pro-
gress, especially considering the disturbed state of the
country. In 1899 over 1000 miles had been completed
and 200 miles were under construction. The central
system, having its terminus at Monte Video, runs
for 130 miles north to Durazno on the Eio Yi, with a
branch 20 miles Ions; connecting the Eio Santa Lucia
with San Jose. From Durazno it extends for nearly 200
miles north-westwards to Paysandu and Salto, crossing
the Eio Xegro at Paso de los Toros, and ascending the
Uruguay for 110 miles beyond Salto in the direction of
^ Zephyrus, p. 168.
UKUGUAY 441
Santa Eosa and the Brazilian frontier. A beginning lias
been made with another line also intended to connect the
capital with the north-east frontier of Brazil at Jaguarao ;
but of this system only the first short section from
]\Ionte Video to Pando has been completed.
Resources — The Meat Industries
In Uruguay husbandry in the strict sense of the term
is confined almost exclusively to the three southern
departments of Canelones, San Jose, and Colonia, which
extend along the Plate estuary from Maldonado to the
Uruguay. Here the plough is everywhere steadily, and
in some places rapidly, encroaching on the grazing-grounds,
and the area under tillage increased from 430,000 acres
in 1888 to over 700,000 in 1897. The chief crops are
wheat and maize, of which the estimated yield exceeded
300,000 and 160,000 tons respectively in 1898.
Tobacco, the olive, vine, and fruits are also successfully
cultivated, and the pomegranates of the Monte Video
district have acquired a widespread celebrity.
But all this is as nothing compared with stock-breed-
ing, and the industries directly associated with the pre-
paration of animal products, such as jerked beef, frozen
meat, tinned tongues, beef extracts, hides, skins, tallow, and
wool. These must long continue to be the main resources
of the country, although their development is still re-
tarded both by the fluctuating demand of the European
markets, and by the lack of good communications with
the rich pasture-lands of the interior. In 1898 the live
stock comprised nearly 17,000,000 sheep, 6,000,000
horned cattle, and 420,000 horses and mules, valued at
about £16,000,000, exclusive of the wool clip, which often
exceeds 30,000 tons. In the same year the total exports
442 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
of all animal products exceeded £5,500,000, besides live
animals £160,000, while all the other exports (wheat,
minerals, rubber) were estimated at less than £320,000.
In the absence of any other industries all manufactured
goods have to be imported, chiefly from Great Britain,
which takes the leading place in the international ex-
changes ; while its exports to, greatly exceed its imports
from, Uruguay. In 1896 these exports (cotton and woollen
fabrics, metal-wares, coal, etc.) exceeded £1,434,000,
while the imports (hides, wool, meat extracts, tinned
meat, rubber) fell below £317,000.
Of the jerked beef (charqui, pronounced charki), which
is so widely consumed by nearly all classes in South
America, immense quantities are prepared in the Uruguayan
meat factories. When properly cured, carefully preserved,
and skilfully cooked, it may be made palatable ; but these
conditions are rarely fulfilled, and as a rule strangers do
not find jerked meat a savoury article of food. " Charki,"
writes Mr. Knight, " is merely beef cut into long thin
strips and dried in the sun ; when fresh it is not bad,
but it rarely is fresh ; and after these lean shreds have
been hanging outside a rancho in the hot, dusty air, they
form anything but a luxurious diet. The charki then
Ijecomes so much third-rate leather ; all the juices have
been completely dried out of it, and the grilling of
it on an asador over a wood fire does not tend to
soften it. The toughness that beef thus treated can
acquire is a thing to be experienced not told " (vol. i.
p. 222).
In 1895 this staple diet of whole populations was
exported from Uruguay to all the surrounding lands to
the estimated value of nearly £1,000,000. As the
supply is practically unlimited, while the demand must
increase with the growth of population in Argentina and
UKUGUAY 448
the south Brazilian provinces, political economists are
already looking to the development of this trade as a
means of reducing the heavy national liabilities, which
were increased by £1,500,000 in 1899, and now exceed
£25,600,000.
Government — Education — Finance
Soon after the establishment of its political independ-
ence, a Constitution was framed for the little republic
of Uruguay which dates from the year 1830, and is
comprehensive enough for the good government of
a great empire. At that time the population of the
whole country, debased by years of strife and blood-
shed, fell short of 80,000 ; but the fundamental
charter of rights reads as if. addressed to many millions
of sober and enlightened citizens. The legislative
functions are entrusted to a Parliament with an Upper
and a Lower House ; the executive to a President chosen
for four years ; the administration of justice to a High
Court, with secondary tribunals, and all kinds of provisions
against malversation and venality. Guarantees are also
devised against hasty legislation and premature reforms,
and no revision of the organic articles of the Constitution
until it has been considered by three sessions of l:)oth
Houses.
By the terms of this charter, which has never been
either revoked or respected, never understood by a tithe
of the people in whose interests it was framed, the
annual parliamentary session extends from February to
July, and during the adjournment a permanent com-
mittee of two senators and five members of the Lower
House assume, not only the general control of affairs, but
also the legislative power itself. The senators, returned
444 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
for six years and one-third retiring every two years, are
chosen by an Electoral College, one for each department,
the College being elected ' by popular suffrage. The
members of the Lower House are also chosen by the
people in the proportion of one for every 3000 male
adults who can read and write. A council of five
ministers (Interior, Foreign Afftxirs, Finance, War
and Marine, Education and Public Works) assists
the President in the exercise of his executive
functions.
Although the Eoman Catholic is recognised as the
State religion, all other creeds enjoy complete toleration
both in principle and practice. Protestants are relatively
numerous, and in Monte Video alone the different sects
were estimated at over 12,000 in 1896, besides 25,000
" not declared."
Primary instruction is obligatory, and in 1897 the
attendance at the public, elementary, and private
schools exceeded 73,000. Higher education is provided
for by normal schools, a school of arts and trades
supported by the State and attended by 200 free
pupils, and a university at Monte Video with 600
students in 1897. In the same year there were
altogether one school for every 897 inhabitants, one
teacher for every 411 inhabitants, and one pupil for
every 11 inhabitants.
The land forces comprise a standing army of about
3500, a national guard of some 20,000 and over 3000
armed police. There are also three or four gunboats
with a complement of nearly 200 officers and men. All
these forces are maintained at a charge of about
£400,000 out of a yearly revenue averaging a little over
£3,000,000. Another heavy charge on the public funds
are the pensions, which are granted for services rendered,
. i
URUGUAY 445
not to tlie State, but to the successful leaders of the
different factions, and in 1898 exceeded £263,000.
Thus nearly one-fourth of the State revenues is wasted
either on useless armaments or professional politicians,
while the interest on the public debt absurbs over a
third (£1,130.000 in 1898).
CHAP TEE XIII
PARAGUAY
Boundaries, Extent, Population — Physical Features — Hydrography —
The Paraguay River and its Affluents — The Upper and Middle Parana
Basin — Climate — Flora and Vegetable Resources — Fauna — Stock-
breeding — Inhabitants — ThePa}'aguas — The Guarani and the Missions
— The Paraguayans — Topography — Historic Retrospect — Administra-
tion.
Boundaries, Extent, Population
Xamed from the great river, which for about 200
rniles forms its western frontier towards Argentina,
Paraguay is sometimes rather inaccurately called the
" Mesopotamia of South America." The expression
suggests the popular but erroneous idea that this State
lies entirely or mainly within the space enclosed west,
east, and south by the Parana and the Paraguay converg-
ing at Las Tres Bocas. But such is far from Ijeing the
case, and in point of fact the republic is not merely
skirted but intersected by the Paraguay for a distance
of 250 miles between the Apa and Pilcomayo confluences.
Moreover, for another stretch of nearly 200 miles — from
the Laguna de la Bahia Xegra to the mouth of the Apa
— the Paraguay flows between Brazil on the east and
Bolivia on the west side, so that here there is no
question of a Mesopotamia at all. The true South
PARAGUAY 447
American Mesopotamia lies farther soutli, where the
Argentine provinces of Misiones, Corrientes, and Entre
Eios are really enclosed by the two rivers Parana and
Uruguay.
That section of Paraguay which lies to the west of
the Eio Paraguay, and is called Paraguay Occidental,
comprises the north-east portion of Gran Chaco, whose
frontiers towards Bolivia and Argentina have been
described in previous chapters. The rest of the State,
that is, Paraguay Oriental, does to some extent form a
Mesopotamic region, because the southern districts are
bordered west, south, and east by the two great arteries
as far north on the east side as the Guayra Falls of the
Parana in 24° S. lat. Here the conterminous States are
Argentina up to the Victoria Falls, where the same river
is joined on its left bank by the Eio I-Guazu, and Brazil
thence to the Guayra Falls.
Brazil is also the conterminous State along the
north - east and north frontiers, where the boundary,
as determined by the International Commission of
1871-73, coincides with the crests of the Mbaracayu
and Amambay ranges from the Parana to the source
of the Eio Estrella, and then follows that river and
the Eio Apa, as its lower course is called, to its
junction with the Paraguay at Fuerte del Apa in
22° 5 S. lat. All these frontiers appear to have
been generally accepted by the interested States, so that
Paraguay, like Uruguay, is no longer troubled with
boundary questions.
Although the smallest but one of the South American
republics, Paraguay covers none the less a considerable
area, estimated at nearly 98,000 square miles, that is,
the collective area of England, Scotland, and Wales, with
10,000 square miles to spare. But the population,
448
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
reduced from about 1,340,000^ to little over 200,000
after the terrible war of 1865-70, was still officially
estimated in 1897 at scarcely more than 730,000.
These are classed as wild Indians, chiefly in western
Paraguay ; civilised Indians, chiefly in eastern Paraguay ;
and whites, mainly Hispano-Guarani half-castes, speaking
both Guarani (the lengua general) and Spanish, besides
recent immigrants from the surrounding States and from
Europe, as in the subjoined table : —
Hispano-Guarani (Paraguayans proper)
Wild Indians, mostly in Gran Chaco .
Civilised Indians,, mostly in the Parana districts
Settlers from Argentina
,, Italy
,, ,, Germany
,, ,. Brazil
,, ,, Switzerland
,, ,, Grent Britaii
Sundries .
Total (1897)
590,000
70,000
60,000
5,500
2,500
800
700
500
200
100
'30,300
Physical Features
The eastern section of the republic, forming a tri-
angular space of over 40,000 square miles between the
rivers Paraguay and Pilcomayo, with its apex at the con-
fluence and base coinciding with the conventional
boundary line towards Bolivia, constitutes the north-
eastern corner of Gran Chaco, and everywhere presents
the same geological conformation and general aspect as
the rest of that region. It is an almost level low-lying
tract, which was formerly flooded by the Pampean Sea,
^ This somewhat vague estimate is, however, reduced to about 800,000
by Dr. E. de Bourgade La Dardye, who calculates that as many as three-
fourths of the nation perished in the war, leaving an approximate popula-
tion of 250,000 for the year 1872 {Paraguay, Ravenstein's English ed.,
p. 105).
PARAGUAY 449
and is still exposed to vast periodical inundations, thus
presenting the appearance of a land in process of forma-
tion. Standing at a mean altitude of less than 500 feet,
with a scarcely perceptible southerly tilt, the soil is but
partly relieved of its superabundant moisture mainly by
evaporation, and the water lodging in the shallow
depressions is so charged with salt as to be scarcely
potable. During the floods these depressions, as well
as the sluggish streams themselves, become merged in a
continuous watery expanse, which thus intermittently
revives the aspect of the old marine basin, and after its
subsidence leaves the surface saturated and malarious.
Beyond the Paraguay, which is a physical as well as
a political divide, the land rises to a hilly plateau standing
at a moderate elevation of about 600 feet, and intersected
diagonally from north-east to south-west by the broken
sections of a very old mountain range. Under the
various designations of JJrucxdy, Caa-Guazu and Villa
Rica, this range forms a southern continuation of the
Brazilian Serra d'Amamhay, and like it everywhere serves
as the water-parting between the Parana and Paraguay
basins. It enters Paraguay territory at the point where
the Amambay chain bends sharply round from south to
east, and continues under the name of the Serra de
Mharacayu in this direction along the 24th parallel to
the right bank of the Parana, and deflects that river from
west to south at the Guayra Falls. At its southern
extremity the Villa Eica section again strikes the Parana
at a point below Villa Encarnacion, where are developed
the lacyreta and Apipe falls and rapids.
Although dignified with the title of " Cordilleras,"
the Paraguayan sections of the system nowhere attain an
altitude of over 2000 feet, and their true character of
rounded and densely -wooded hills is betrayed by the
VOL. I 2 G
450 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGHAPHY AND TRAVEL
local expression Sierra de los Mantes, that is, " Forest
Kange." In fact the Urucuty and Caa-Guazu sections
traverse the densely -wooded north-eastern and central
districts, vi^here the difficulties of the communications
between the yerhales {mate tea plantations) on Ijoth sides
of the chain are caused, not by the height or rugged
character of the hills, but by the tangled masses of
tropical vegetation by which they are overgrown. Even
the frontier ranges themselves — Amambay and Mbaracayu
—have a mean height of probably less than 3000 feet,
and are easily crossed by hunters, explorers, and mate
gatherers about the Brazilo-Paraguay borderlands. Yet,
like the other Brazilian mountain systems, of which they
are south-western offshoots, all these now degraded ridges
have undergone a tremendous amount of weathering and
denudation. " Long before the mighty upheaval of the
great Cordillera these very hills sustained the continent
of [South] America, and protected its eastern plateaux
from the incursions of the sea. The action of the climate
has wrought their destruction ; torrents, unceasing and
inexhaustible, debased their topmost crests, filled up their
crevices, and little by little the unremitted work of
erosion denuded the mountain-flanks of the granite by
which they were upheld. Portion after portion has
crumbled away, and the fragments have had an enormous
share in filling up the vast estuaries which indented the
American coast-line at the Tertiary era. It was probably
the Pliocene period [late Tertiary] that witnessed in their
greatest intensity the phenomena that gave the continent
its present configuration. All the eastern part of the land
remained upheaved, while the western zone sank down to
a considerable depth, allowing the Pliocene [Pampean]
sea to penetrate to the very heart of America." ^
1 La Dardye, p. 9.
PARAGUAY 451
Xo doubt the volcanic phenomena, which accompanied
the folding and upheaval of the Andean system, extended
eastwards to the Paraguayan uplands. Thus may be
explained the presence of several igneous cones, such as
the Cerro Tiiciimhu close to Asuncion, and the Acay
heights (2000 feet) near the head of the Eio Mbuarapey,
a tributary of the Tibicuary. Here are numerous mineral
springs, and earthquakes are of frequent occurrence in
the district. Elsewhere extensive tracts are covered to
depths of several feet and even yards with a red earth
which, like that of the Brazilian province of S. Paulo, is
extremely fertile and well suited for tobacco culture.
Eecent scientiiic research has determined in Paraguay
two distinct geological regions — the north, which as far
as about 22° S. lat. is covered with limestones, and the
south, where sandstone formations prevail. Such a con-
stitution is not favourable to the presence of the precious
metals ; but the whole country may be described as one
vast mass of ironstone and manganese, iron abounding
especially in the southern, and marble in the northern
area. Pyrites occur in considerable quantities ; kaolin
has been discovered in many districts ; copper lodes are
also spoken of, and coal, hitherto supposed to be absent,
is now believed to be embedded in the southern sandstone
rocks, but apparently at some depth below the surface.
Hydrography— The Paraguay River and its Affluents
While Western Paraguay belongs entirely to the Eio
Paraguay basin, the eastern section drains partly to that
river and partly to the Parana. But the already
described divide between the two main streams lies far
to the south-east, so that only a relatively small section
of the whole territory, probably not more than 20,000
452 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
square miles, is comprised within the Parana basin.
Moreover, the Parana itself is everywhere only a frontier
river, whereas for 250 miles of its course the Paraguay
traverses the central and by far the most thickly peopled
districts of the republic. When it is further considered
that at the confluence in the south-west corner of the
State it is lost in the Parana, while only comparatively
insignificant parts of Brazil and Bolivia are comprised in
its narrow and less important upper basin, one feels less
surprise at the pretentions of former Paraguayan rulers,
who claimed the right to exercise exclusive control over
this great waterway.
In some respects the Paraguay bears the same rela-
tion to the Parana that the Mississippi does to the
Missouri, but with this difference, that in the northern
system the smaller of the two branches retains its name
from its source to the delta, whereas in the south the
smaller is absorbed in the larger at the confluence. Why
this should be so is not quite evident, seeing that the
Paraguay, like the Mississippi, follows the meridional
line from north to south, which in both cases seems to
be the natural direction of the main fluvial axis. Some
eminent geographers have, in fact, always held that the
united stream below the confluence should have kept the
name of the Paraguay, the more so since the natural
lower course of the Parana would seem to be the Uruguay,
from which it is deflected abruptly westwards only by
a projecting offshoot of the Sierra de los Misioues above
Villa Encarnacion. But all such considerations were
outweighed by the much larger size of the Parana, that
is, the " Eiver " in a pre-eminent sense. Hence the great
north-eastern branch, whose volume is often ten times
larger than that of the Paraguay at the confluence, retains
its name for the rest of its course to the Plate estuary.
PARAGUAY 453
The Paraguay rises about 1000 feet above sea-level
on the Matto Grosso plateau, which forms the water-
parting between the Amazon and Parana basins. At
As sete lagoas, perhaps its farthest source (in 14° 35' S.
lat. and 56° 10' W.), the divide is so contracted that
the head-waters of the Tapajos affluent of the Amazons
seem to intermingle, or at least to overlap those of the
Paraguay in the Diamantina district above Cuyaba. The
Arinos, a branch of the Tapajos, is even said to flow from
the same lagoons as the Paraguay, while a head-stream of
the Jauru affluent has actually been connected by a
canal half-a-mile long with the Alegre, which joins the
Guapore, or upper course of the Madeira a little south of
Matto Grosso.
Soon after escaping from the hilly district of the
sources, where it tumbles over a series of rapids with a
total fall of nearly 400 feet, the Paraguay begins at
once to flow in an almost level bed, with a tranquil uni-
form current, and an incline of not more than 3 or 4
inches per mile. In fact, from its junction with the S.
LourenQO on its right bank to the Plate estuary, a dis-
tance of over 2500 miles, the absolute incline is only
about 600 feet, and is so uniformly distributed that the
channel is nowhere obstructed by a single rapid, although
the navigation is not considered quite safe until the
somewhat dangerous reach at Los Arrecifes near the now
ruined settlement of San Salvador has been passed.
Hence the Paraguay is completely navigable from the
Atlantic into the very heart of Brazil, and small steamers
even ascend the S. LoureuQO to the mouth of the Hio
Cuyciba, which leads to the town of the same name in
the province of Matto Grosso. Such a fluvial regime is
explained by the fact that throughout the greater part
of its course the Paraguay traverses the level bed of the
454 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
old Pampean Sea, traces of which may still be detected in
the so-called " Laguna " de los Xarayes, a vast level plain
which under several names {Laguna Mandiary, Laguna
de Caceres, Gaiha, etc.) extends for 360 miles all the
way from above the S. Lourenco to and beyond the con-
fluence of the Tacuari and Miranda, which join the left
bank near Coimbra.
When the Spanish pioneers first penetrated to this
region, they described it as a boundless lake — being
probably flooded at the time as it still is periodically
— and regarded it as the source of the Paraguay, invest-
ing it with marvellous properties, and reporting that in
the midst of these waters dwelt El Dorado, the ever-
receding goal of all their early expeditions to the interior.
The plain, which is skirted on its west side by the upper
course of the Paraguay, has still its flooded inlets and
hahias (" bays "), and these deeper parts are not only
permanently submerged, but even here and there have a
brackish taste, derived from the thick saline incrustations
deposited by the old inland sea.
The true character of the Xarayes region has been
somewhat misunderstood, owing to the term " laguna,"
popularly applied to its different sections. It is neither
a lagoon or shallow lake, nor yet a morass or marshy
depression, but a true plain of vast extent, standing at
almost a dead level, and in the dry season watered by
numerous perennial streams, which during the floods,
from about March to July, are merged in a single sheet
of water stretching away in all directions beyond the
horizon, and diversified by numerous low verdant islands,
or solitary clumps of trees rising above the surface.
After the subsidence, the watermarks of the recurrent
inundations are plainly visible on the stems of these
trees, which represent, not the scrubby vegetation of fens
PARAGUAY 455
or moorlands, but the vigorous arliorescent growths of a
firm tropical soil.
Below the Xarayes flats the Paraguay is joined on its
right hank by the navigable Eios Tucabaca {Olinden) and
Otvquis, and a little farther on by the Bahia Keyra,
where begins that section of Gran Chaeo which is com-
prised in Paraguay territory. Beyond this point the
only important affluents on the right bank are the already
described Pilcomayo and Bermejo. But about 190 miles
below the Bahia Negra it receives on the left side the
Rio Apa, forming the frontier towards Brazil, and from
this point to the Parana confluence its course lies entirely
within Paraguayan territory. Here its waters are swollen
by several tributaries from the east, none of which
possess much economic importance except the Aqvidahan,
the Juji-iy, and the Tihucuary. The Aquidaban, which rises
in the Amambay range above Punta Pona, flows mainly
west to its junction with the main stream some 1 5 miles
north of Concepcion. Although it sends down a large
volume its rocky bed is so obstructed with rapids that
the yerhateros, that is, the people engaged in collecting
yerba-mate in the interior, have abandoned all efforts to
utilise it for traffic. This turl^ulent stream flows through
some magnificent woodlands, where trees 60 to 90 feet
high and 20 feet in girth are quite common.
But of all the Paraguayan rivers the most important
is the Jujuy, which rises in the Cerro Noyuez, converging
point of the three mountain ranges, and with its widely-
ramifying branches drains nearly one-fourth of the whole
territory. Many of its numerous affluents are navigable,
and the main stream may be ascended for a considerable
distance by boats of 40 tons. A few miles beyond the
town of San Pedro the Jujuy falls into the Paraguay
through two arms just above Barranqnerita, a military
456 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPvAVEL
station where all steamers stop at present. The Jujuy,
which was first thoroughly explored by La Dardye in
1887, possesses great commercial value, and in its
basin are situated some of the finest yerbales in the
country.
Below Asuncion the marshy region, which extends all
the way to the Parana confluence, is traversed and partly
drained by the Tibicuary, a sluggish meandering river
which, after receiving the overflow of the large Laguna
Y2Joa through the Bio Negro emissary, flows in a channel
300 yards broad to the Paraguay some miles below Villa
Franca. The Tibicuary, which also waters some rich
mate forests, is formed by the junction of two consider-
able head-streams, the Tibicuary -mini and the Tihicv.ary-
guazu, which flow from the slopes of the Caa-Guazu and
Villa Eica ranges, and unite in a single channel lielow
the Cerro Santa Maria.
Below the Tibicuary the main stream continues to
flow with many windings in the normal direction of
south by west, and after passing the bluff formerly
crowned by the famous stronghold of Humaita, enters
the Parana through three arms (the Tres Bocas) just
above Corrientes. Here the Parana, coming from the
east, may be said to usurp the bed of the Paraguay, and
M. de Saint-Adolphe amongst others expresses his sur-
prise that geographers should give the name of the
Parana to its lower course, which continues to flow in
the same southerly direction till it bends round to join
the Uruguay at the head of the Plate estuary.
But taking the section from the Tres Bocas to the
Uruguay as the lower course of the Parana, such is the
generally uniform character of the Paraguay branch that
its three main sections have to be determined rather on
political than on physical grounds. Thus, from its source
PARAGUAY 457
to the S. LourenQO confluence it lies entirely in Brazilian
territory, and this section, where the incline is somewhat
rapid above the Xarayes flats, may be taken as its true
upper course. Then the middle course, where it forms
the boundary between Brazil and Bolivia, will extend to
the Bahia Negra, and the lower course from this point to
the Parana, the main stream here flowing first between
Paraguay and Argentina, and then altogether in Para-
guayan territory. The total distance from its source to
Corrientes is about 1000 miles, of which nearly 900
miles are navigable for small craft throughout the year,
and for large vessels at high water, when the Paraguay
rises at times from 20 to 30 feet above its normal level.
The Upper and Middle Parana Basin
No difficulty is presented by the Parana branch,
whose natural and political divisions are in complete
harmony. Its upper course, formed by the junction of
the Eios Grande and Faranahiha, terminates naturally
at the Guayra Falls, and consequently belongs entirely
to Brazil. From these Falls to the Paraguay confluence
it flows as a frontier river first between Brazil and
Paraguay and then between Paraguay and Argentina,
and this clearly marked section is rightly regarded as its
middle course from the strictly physical standpoint.
Lastly, the elsewhere described lower course is an Argen-
tine waterway throughout its whole length from the
Paraguay confluence to the Plate estuary. What is
remarkable about these three sections is that the first and
third, flowing in deep and slightly inclined channels, are
for the most part tranquil navigable streams, whereas the
second, rushing in a rocky bed down a steep incline and
over numerous reefs, rapids, and even falls, is practically
458 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
useless for navigation, despite the enormous body of
water it rolls down to the Pampean plains.
This curious phenomenon of the great artery assum-
ing somewhat the aspect of a mountain torrent, not in
its upper valley but in its middle reaches, has been a
main factor in determining the course of events in the
southern continent since its occupation by the white
man. The circumstance was taken advantage of by the
Jesuits, who founded their chief missions in the region
of the cataracts, where they hoped to enjoy that seclusion
from the outer world which was needed for the peaceful
development of their theocratic system of government.
To the same cause is largely due the fact that Paraguay
is now an independent Hispano-American State, instead
of an obscure province of the Brazilian republic. The
Paulistas and other early Portuguese pioneers, arrested
by the almost impassable barrier of the iide Quedas
(the " Seven Falls " of Guayra), turned their energies
in other directions, and thus gave the first Spanish
colonists time to secure a strong footing in the Paraguay
basin above Corrientes. Hence it is that, when the
Guarani congregations melted away, after the expulsion
of the Jesuits, the Middle Parana region reverted to its
primeval state of a silent wilderness, where the solitary
traveller occasionally stumbles upon the pictui-esque ruins
of some Christian church festooned with lianas, while all
life and movement are now centred in the old Spanish
settlements along the banks of the Lower Paraguay.
Some 40 miles below the junction of its two head-
streams, in 19° S. lat., the Upper Parana is precipitated
a height of 15 to 20 feet over the Uruhwpunga Falls,
which appear to be the only obstruction to its navigation
above the Guayra Falls. Between these two points its
current is swollen by a great number of tributaries, the
PARAGUAY 459
largest of which are the Tiet6 and the Paranapanema,
which join the left bank from the province of S. Paulo.
Despite its great length and volume, the Paranapanema,
that is, the " Useless Kiver," is so obstructed by rocky
ledges and rapids that it is quite useless for navigation.
At the Salto Grande (" Great Falls ") a body of about
1000 cubic feet per second tumbles from a height of
over 30 feet into a narrow rocky gorge, beyond which
occur several other cascades.
Just above the G-uayra Falls the Parana expands
into a large basin 4 or 5 miles wide, whence it issues in
two branches which, like Niagara, enclose a large island,
and then develop a number of separate swirling channels,
which, after piercing the projecting spurs of the Sierra
Mbaracayu, plunge from heights of 50 to 60 feet into a
seething chasm of immense depth, but not more than 200
feet wide. From the rushing channels the cataract takes
its Portuguese name of the " Seven Falls " ; but the
number is not to be taken too literally, as they vary with
the seasons, while during the floods all are merged in a
single stream. Then is presented the sublime spectacle
of one of the mightiest rivers in the world precipitated
bodily into a fathomless abyss, and La Dardye, to whom
we owe the only accurate account of the Falls, may well
ask whether they are equalled in size and grandeur even
by Niagara itself
At the Guayra Falls, which are so named from the
old Jesuit station of La Guayra, the Parana strikes the
Paraguayan frontier, and turning abruptly south enters
on its middle course, where it is at first confined to a
relatively narrow rocky bed. Throughout the whole of
this section, about 400 miles in length, the main stream
is joined on its right bank only by some comparatively
small tributaries from Paraguay. Of these the largest
460
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
appears to be the Rio Felotas or laurel/, which rises at
the Cerro Nogiiez close to the sources of the Jujuj', and
after a course of about 70 miles, of which 20 are navi-
gable, enters the Parana some 3 miles below the Guayra
Falls. On the left side the chief atiluent is the I-Guazu,
i.e. the " Great Eiver," which drains a considerable portion
of the Brazilian provinces of Parana and Sante Catharina,
VICTORIA FALLS OF THE I-GUAZU,
and joins the Parana at the point where it leaves lirazil,
and for the rest of its course to the Paraguay confluence
forms the boundary between Paraguay and Argentina.
It was along the valley of the I-Guazu, which rises as the
Bio Grande do Curifiba on the slopes of the Coast Eange,
that the famous adventurer Alvar Nunez (Calieza de
Yaca) made his way in 1542 across the continent from
the Atlantic to Asuncion on the Paraguay. About six
miles al)ove its junction with the Parana, the T-Guazu
PARAGUAY 461
develops the Victoria Falls, which although inferior in
volume are much higher, about 200 feet, than those of
La Guayra.
About 100 miles below the I-Guazu confluence, the
Parana, still flowing south as if to join the Uruguay, is
turned westwards to the Paraguay by the Sierra de los
Misiones. Here the incline is still considerable, and the
current rushes on with such velocity that in the course
of ages it has cut its hard sandstone bed down to depths
of 120 or 150 feet below the level of its rocky walls, thus
excavating long gloomy gorges that have even been com-
pared with the canons of the North American Colorado.
Beyond the point where it seems to desert the valley of
the Uruguay, the main stream does not reach the normal
level of the Eio Paraguay until it has surmounted a long-
series of rapids below Encarnacion, where it has to force
its way through the southern spurs of the Villa Eica
range, and where its channel is divided by the large
islands of lacyreta and Apip4, surviving fragments of
those very ancient mountains. Here at last the mighty
Parana enlarges its borders, and flows — a calm majestic
waterway, several thousand feet wide — through the vast
marshy tract, where it usurps the bed of the Paraguay
above Corrientes.
This low-lying and almost perfectly level swampy
region, which certainly formed part of the old Pampean
sea, extends for a distance of over 120 miles on both
sides of the Parana. Eemnants of the marine basin are
the Ypoa and Camba lagoons on the north (Paraguayan)
side, to which the remarkable Ihera lagoon corre-
sponds on the opposite (Argentine) side. So slight is
the incline in this extensive flooded depression of the
" Clear- water," as the word has been interpreted, that the
encfineers have been able to give the Ibera a double out-
462 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
flow, north to the Middle Parana below the Apipe rapids,
and through the Rios Batel and Corrients south to the
Lower Parana above La Paz. Thus the vast Parana-
Paraguayan hydrographic system is found to be, so to say,
still in touch with the ancient inland sea at such distant
points as the Ibera and the Xarayes lacustrine districts.
The lower section, where the two head branches flow in
a single channel from the Tres Bocas to the Plate estuary,
is described in Chapter IX.
Climate
Lying between 22° and 28° S. lat., Paraguay is
essentially a sub-tropical region, where the normal cli-
matic conditions, as determined by latitude, are disturbed
neither by marine influences nor by lofty mountain
ranges or other local features. The land, however, is
sheltered somewhat by the Brazilian uplands from the
warm equatorial currents, while it is fully exposed to the
refreshing south-western pamperos, hence enjoys on the
whole a cooler and healthier climate than many regions
lying between the same parallels. The four seasons are
not sharply distinguished, and Dr. La Dardye divides the
year into nine months of perpetual spring, and three
summer months — December, January, and February —
which, although undeniably hot, are less sultry and
oppressive than in Venezuela and the Guianas. This
agrees very well with the records of the mean annual
temperature of Asuncion, about 250 feet above sea-level,
which is a little over 72° F., rising to 80" in January
and falling to 63° in June, although such extremes as 40°
and 100° and even 104° have occasionally been observed.
The country suffers more from droughts than from
excessive moisture, because the precipitation is mostly
PAKAGUAY 463
confined to the three months of August, September, and
October, when the total rainfall amounts to 4 6 inches, leav-
ing very little for the rest of the year. Except small-pox,
which has been much diminished since the introduction of
vaccination, there are no epidemics, and endemic com-
plaints are hardly known beyond the now almost unin-
habited eastern districts, where the chucho, a somewhat
virulent intermittent fever, is prevalent. On the whole
Dr. La Dardye, who has given the subject special atten-
tion, pronounces the climate " both temperate and healthy "
even for " European immigrants observing hygienic
rules" (op. cit. p. 73).
Flora and Vegetable Resources
Despite its relatively limited extent, Paraguay may
claim to possess two distinct botanical zones, corresponding
to the two sections of the country divided by its great
waterway. Eastern Paraguay is still mainly covered
with primeval subtropical and even tropical woodlands,
with magnificent trees of great economic value, often
matted together with flowering creepers. These wood-
lands, however, are not continuous, but interrupted in
many places by extensive open tracts under tall, tufted
grasses, and by low hilly ridges overgrown with pindo
and mbocaya palms. But the most characteristic as well
as the most valuable plant is yerla-mate (" Paraguay
tea "), which is here indigenous, although it ranges also
beyond the Parana into the neighbouring provinces of
Brazil. In the cultivated districts oranges, tobacco,
sugar-cane, manioc, tomatoes, beans, and several cereals
yield good returns.
A great contrast to all this exuberance of vegetable
growths is presented by that section of Gran Chaco
•i64
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
which constitutes "Western Paraguay, and has mostly the
aspect of swampy moorlands, diversified with dense
quebracho forests {Loxopterygium Zorenzii) and palms,
such as the Cocos yatais, growing openly rather than in
PARAGUAY TEA.
compact masses. Amongst the species which range also
into Eastern Paraguay is the valuable quehracho Colorado,
which is so heavy that it will not float, and for strength
and durability is scarcely equalled by any European tree.
Other useful trees and shrubs, of which as many as
PARAGUAY 465
3000 species were collected by M. Balanza in a limited
area, are the dragon's blood {Croton succiruhus) ; several
varieties of the bombax, which yields a vegetable silk ;
the palo de rosa (rosewood) ; the incienso, i.e., the incense
tree of the Jesuits ; the guava {Psidium microcarpurn) ;
the mamon (Papaw-tree), and a large number of orchids,
tlye-woods, and medicinal plants, many of which are un-
known, or known only by name, in Europe.
But of all the vegetable products of the country in-
comparably the most important for its future development
is the plant of the Ilex family (Ilex parag^uiyensis), which
the Gruarani people call caa (whence the name of the
Gaa-Guazu, central range), and the Spaniards yerla-viaU}
and which yields the infusion generally known as
" Jesuit " or " Paraguay tea." Although the plant is
met also in parts of Argentina and of Brazil {herva-do-
maU), it attains its greatest perfection in Paraguay,
where it covers large tracts, the so-called yerljcdes, on
both slopes of the central range. In the time of the
Jesuits the plantations were carefully cultivated by pro-
cesses which secured a never-failing supply of periodical
crops. But since their expulsion the secret of their
method has been lost, and at present there is no properly
organised system of cultivation, the yerbales being worked
in much the same manner as are the rubber-yielding
plants, which grow^ wild in the Amazonian woodlands.
Nevertheless the yield is steadily increasing to meet the
•" From yerba, herb, and the Quichuan word ma-U, calabasli, the full
expression being yerha del mat6, that is, the "calabash herb," being so
called because the infusion is made with hot water in a calabash teapot,
from which when cool it is sucked up through a tube. It should be noted
that, despite its Spanish name, the plant is not a "herb," but a shrub or
even a tree, as indicated by its native name, caa, wliich means "tree," in
a pre-eminent sense. There are at least three varieties, one of which, in
the Ygatima valley within the Brazilian frontier, attains a height of 25 or
26 feet, with a girth of 3 or -4 fuet.
VOL. I 2 H
466 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPIIY AND TRAVEL
constantly increasing demand for Paraguay tea, which'
has become the favourite beverage not only in Paraguay
itself, but also throughout Argentina and in many parts
of Brazil. Thus the quantity of the leaf exported rose
from about 5000 tons in 189 6 to nearly 7000 in 1898,
the popularity of the drink being explained by its now
admitted innnense superiority over tea, coffee, and coca as
a tonic, and as a stimulant to the physical and mental
powers, without causing any reaction or waste to the
system. This conclusion is based, not so much on the
scientific analysis of the properties of mate as on the
experience of the multitudes who now prefer it to all
other analogous drinks, even in those districts where
excellent coffee and coca are procurable. Its consumption
is still confined to South America. But when the Old
World discovers that " yerba-mate is the cheapest, most
wholesome, and tone-giving of beverages, then the ports
of Europe will be thrown open to the trade, and its
populations swell the demand for an article of diet that
ranks among the very best." ^
Next to the yerbales in present importance and future
promise are the naranjales, the " orange groves," some
cultivated, some running wild all over tlie land, but all
displaying marvellous vitality, and yielding, not periodical
crops, but a continuous supply nearly all the year round,
neither fruit nor blossom ever completely failing in a
region of almost perpetual spring. So widespread is the
shrub that La Dardye, while admitting the introduction
of the sweet orange and the lemon by the Jesuits, has
difficulty in believing that some varieties besides the
ap4pu, an undoubtedly native species, are not indigenous.
" Everywhere, on the banks of the rios, in the gorges of
the far-off sierras, near the ranchos, round the estancias^
1 La Daidye, p. 22L
PAEAGUAY 467
in the solitude of the forests, the trees are seen with
their golden fruit' and deep -green foliage, in rows, in
terraces, in groves — everywhere, on mountains and on
plains, they grow and break the blue horizon with their
rounded outline, and it seems as if they must have
flourished there from all antiquity" (p. 222). All are
of prime quality, more fragrant and luscious than those
of Valencia and Italy, while in hot weather the apepu is
preferred because of its slightly acid flavour. During
the five years' war most of the groves in the settled
districts were fired or out -rooted. But such is the
fecundity of the plant, springing up again wherever a
pip is dropped from a parrot's beak or a leaf wafted on
the breeze to some favourable site, that the ravages of
warfare have to a large extent been already repaired.
The amber and yellow fruits again lend their charm to
the landscape, and twenty of the finest quality are cried
for a penny in the streets of Villeta. After myriads had
been consumed by the natives, or left to rot un gathered,
enough still remained for exportation at this price to the
value of £30,000 in the year 1898. Clearly orange-
culture, also an heirloom of the Jesuits, has a great
future for Paraguay, especially when taken in connection
with the recent development of allied industries, such as
the preparation of an excellent orange wine, quite free
from the flavour of the fruit, and the extraction of citric
acid, citrates of lime, orange - water, candied peel, and
other products of the orange and citron plants in constant
demand.
That the Paraguayans, pre-eminently a nation of
smokers, should also have their tobacco plantations is but
natural, seeing that both soil and climate are well suited
for the cultivation of this herb. Although little known
in Europe, owing to the difficulty of securing a regular
468 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
supply, the Paraguayan leaf is equal to the finest Havana,
and the specimens shown at the Paris Exhibition of 1889
were av^^arded a gold medal. It is grown exclusively in
the red earth districts, the soil of which is of the same
character as the red earth of Cuba, which produces the
choice vuelta abajo variety. But at present the yield
scarcely suffices to meet the demand of the local and
Argentine markets, and in 1898 the amount exported
fell short of 22,000 cwts., valued at nearly £120,000.
With improved processes and more regular communica-
tions, this industry would be capable of indefinite develop-
ment. The extent to which the natives of both sexes
and almost all ages indulge in the habit of smoking may
be judged from the calculation which has been made, that
the daily consumption of cigars averages about seven per
head of the whole population.
Fauna
Of the large carnivora the puma is very rare, although
common in Argentina, whereas both the jaguar and the
tiger-cat {Felis Geoffroi) are met in all the wooded
districts. During the great war the jaguars acquired a
taste for human flesh from the bodies of the dead and
even of the wounded left to die in the forests. But
these " man-eaters " are now extinct, and at present the
" American tiger " seldom attacks man except in self-
defence. A more characteristic but less known animal is
the agv.ara-guazu {Canis jubatus), a species of wild dog,
or perhaps wolf, nearly three feet long, and so fierce and
powerful that, according to the natives, it will not
hesitate to attack the jaguar itself. It is of a tawny
colour, with long hair, very large erect ears, long bushy
tail like tliat of a fox, long black legs and a black stripe
PARAGUAY 469
down the back. It frequents the swampy districts, and
hunts in small packs at night, making a peculiar hoarse
bark, which is heard at a considerable distance, and pro-
duces a depressing effect on benighted wayfarers. The
marten family is represented by several species, such as
the Parana otter {Lutra paroMensis) and the southern
pole-cat {Mephitis patar/onium), locally called the zorino.
Other members of the general South American fauna
are the ant-bear, very large and even dangerous; the
tapir, with a thick hide almost bullet-proof except in the
forehead and behind the shoulder ; the peccary, numerous
herds of which are sometimes met rushing along and
sweeping everything before them ; several varieties of
the armadillo, all edible, and one, the mulita {Praopus
hyhridus), regarded by the Argentines as a choice delicacy ;
lastly the web -footed capybari, of amphibious habits.
There are also several kinds of deer, all called guazu
(" great ") by the natives, but distinguished as guazu pyta,
guazu vira, guazu pucu, etc.
Of birds there is an endless variety, from the huge
waders, such as the tuyuyu {Ciconia maguari), down to
the tiniest humming-birds. Contrary to the general
impression, many are distinguished as much by their
melodious notes as by their gorgeous plumage. But the
popular idea that lovely plumage is never, or rarely,
associated with lovely music, has been sufficiently dispelled
by the observations of Mr. W. H. Hudson, at least for
the South American avifauna.
All the rivers team with saurians of many species, the
characteristic crocodile of the Parana being the yacari
{Alligator sderops), which is sometimes 10 feet long, and
very powerful, but less voracious and aggressive than
those of the Amazon and Orinoco. The same remark
applies to nearly all the members of the numerous snake
470 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
family, which slink away at the slightest noise and never
bite unless touched or trodden upon. Yet some of the
Paraguayan species, such as the rattle-snake, the viper,
and cobra, jaraca {Leucurus), and nacanina, are amongst
the most venomous in the world. Exceptionally the
little nandurU, which looks at a distance like a greenish-
grey earth-worm, difficult to distinguish from the sur-
rounding foliage, is also aggressive. When startled,
instead of retreating, it springs up erect on its tail,
vibrates its head, and immediately attacks, its bite lieing
fatal in a few hours.
On the other hand, the huge boas, strong enough to
break a man's backbone, are singularly inoffensive, and
will even abandon their prey if pricked with any sharp
weapon. Far more dangerous and dreaded are the
enormous water-snakes of the Murina tribe, locally called
miboy-yagua (" serpent-dogs "). Some of these monsters
are nearly 30 feet long, and so powerful that they upset
canoes, and drag bathers under the water. The rivers
infested by them swarm with many species of fishes,
such as the dorado, the 'paca, surubi, and sahalo, which
possess economic value, being not only edible but even
prized for their delicate flavour. Others of coarser
quality — the pcdomxta, armado, and hagre — are attracted
in shoals to the saladeros, where they gorge on the offal
thrown into the river. As in so many other parts of
the southern continent, extensive tracts, especially the
marshy woodlands, are rendered almost uninhalutable by
the clouds of flies, gnats, mosquitoes, and other winged
as well as wingless pests of all kinds. But, as the tsetse-
fly disappears in Africa before the planter, here also
the settled districts, when brought under cultivation,
enjoy almost complete immunity from these noxious
creatures.
PARAGUAY 471
Stock-Breeding
Most of the European domestic animals were intro-
duced by the early settlers. But all did not find
congenial homes in the Paraguay basin. Neither pigs,
goats, nor poultry appear to thrive, and the country is
too hot, or else the herbage too coarse for profitable
sheep-farming. Hence stock-breeding has hitherto been
mainly confined to horned cattle and horses. Even this
industry has had to start afresh after the " five years'
agony," during which the greater part of the domestic
animals were killed off. But since then there has been
a considerable and even rapid increase, especially of the
oxen, which after falling from about 2,000,000 before
the war to less than 15,000 in 1870, again increased to
2,100,000 in 1896. In the same year the horses,
mules, and asses numbered 246,000 and the sheep
130,000, while hides, mostly dressed in the local
tanneries, were exported to the number of 170,000,
valued at £400,000. It is noteworthy that the descend-
ants of the old Spanish cattle improve in the direction
of the north, so that those of Paraguay are better than
the Corrientes herds, while the Miranda breed of Matto
Grosso is reputed to be the finest in South America.
But this law has in recent years been disturbed by
the crossings in the south with fresh stock from England,
so that at present many of the Argentine and Uruguayan
beasts are more valuable for meat-preserving purposes
than those of Paraguay, where these industries have so
far been but little developed. This is due not only to
the relatively small extent of the grazing-grounds, but
also to the lack of regular communications with Europe.
No doubt the great waterway is accessible to vessels of
heavy burden all the way to Asuncion. But its naviga-
472 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TKAVEL
tion, chiefly for want of capital, has hitherto been
neglected, and in 1897 this river-side port was visited
only by 367 ships of less than 133,000 tons.
For the same reason railway enterprise has been
retarded, and in 1898 only one line 156 miles long had
been opened. It runs from Asuncion through Villa
Eica south-eastwards to Pirapo, and still remains uncon-
nected with the Argentine and Uruguayan systems.
Inhabitants — The Payaguas
"No serious attempt has yet been made to settle the
western section of the republic, which is still inhabited
almost exclusively by a few wild tribes, such as the
Chamacocos, Angaites Sana])anas, mostly akin to, and
scarcely less ferocious than, the Tobas of the Pilcomayo.
Except the Sanapanas, who have in recent years been
attracted to the neighbouring settlements, even seeking
employment on the plantations, all these Gran Chaco
tribes have retained their warlike instincts, and not only
maintain a hostile attitude towards the whites, but live
in a state of perpetual strife among themselves. Be-
tween them and the Guarani populations of Eastern
Paraguay formerly dwelt the numerous and powerful
Payagua nation, who were long dominant along both
banks of the Paraguay river, which, according to some
authorities, was named from them. But they became
involved in the operations of the great war, in which
most of them perished, and since then the few survivors
appear to have been absorbed in the general population.
Their practical extinction as a distinct people was
perhaps hastened by their peculiar speech, a stock lan-
guage of such harsh utterance that none of the surrouding
tribes could ever understand or learn to speak it.
PARAGUAY 473
The Payaguas were feiuous boatmen and river pirates,
building wonderfully light canoes, with which they made
rapid plundering excursions up all the tributaries of the
main stream, and spread the terror of their name through-
out all the lands comprised in the Upper Paraguay
basin. They had many usages in common with the
Guaicurus of those regions, and some authorities regard
them as a branch of that nation, from which they
separated about the year 1770.
The Guarani and the Missions
In any case the Payaguas were quite distinct in
appearance, speech, and temperament from the Guarani,
who formed the bulk of the primitive inhabitants of
Eastern Paraguay, and of all the conterminous lands in
the Middle and Upper Parana valleys. The original seat
of the widespread Guarani race has been traced to the
forest region about the Parana, the Paraguay, and the
Uruguay rivers, where the national characteristics and
language were preserved in the greatest purity. Al-
though the term " Guarani " is said to mean " warrior,"
they were not as a rule a savage or ferocious people, but
rather of a gentle disposition, as was afterwards shown
by the docility with which they submitted to the severe
discipline imposed upon them by their Jesuit teachers
and masters. But that a warlike spirit slumbered
beneath this outward show of meekness was made
evident by their heroic conduct during the great war,
as well as in pre-Christian times, when they appear as a
conquering people, who increased their strength and
numbers not so much by bloodshed as by reducing and
incorporating in the nation all the surrounding tribes.
Towards the south their expansion was barred by the
474 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TPtAVEL
indomitable chaiacter of the still more warlike Charruas
and Pampas Indians of Uruguay and the Argentine
plains of the Lower Parana. In the direction of the
north and north-east, also, the physical conditions of
a region either under primeval forests, or consisting of
almost impassable arid campos of vast extent, were
opposed to the establishment of a great political empire,
like that of the Incas on the more open Andean plateaux.
But the Guarani race none the less filtered through in
sufficient numbers to impose their mellifluous and easily
accjuired language on a multitude of peoples, ranging
from the Tupis of the Atlantic seaboard, through the
Mundrucus and others of the Middle Amazon basin, to
the Cocomas and Omaguas under the very roots of the
Cordilleras.
Thus it happened that when the Jesuits founded
their missions in the almost inaccessible region amid the
cataracts of the Middle Parana, they found it convenient
to adopt a modified form of this widely-diffused Guarani-
Tupi speech as the lingoa geral, — the common medium
of instruction and intercourse amongst their rapidly in-
creasing native congregations. So rapid, indeed, was the
increase that within five years of the time when they
first penetrated in 1620 to the secluded district below
the Guayra Falls, they had already established several
stations, in which over 50,000 Indians were settled in
regularly organised communities. The "reductions," as
the stations were called, implying that here the natives
were " reduced " from the savage state and brought under
the civilising influences of the Church, continued to mul-
tiply, until in Paraguay alone they comprised altogether
about 140,000 members in 1768, when everything was
brought to an end by the expulsion of the Jesuits.
This astounding success, achieved under almost over-
PAEAGUAY 475
whelming difiiciilties, was due partly to the admirable
tact and skill with which the padres appealed to the
imagination, tastes, and even passions of the aborigines,
but partly also, and perhaps in greater measure, to the
peculiar social relations of the times. In those days the
Paulistas in the east, and tlie Spaniards in the west, were
everywhere scouring the land in search of hands for
their mines and plantations. They looked upon the
natives as their legitimate property, while the natives
looked to the missions as their only refuge from their
ruthless persecutors. The result was a constant increase
of neophytes, received with open arms by the padres,
who thereby came to be regarded as " receivers of stolen
property." Belonging also to no nationality, they were
treated on both sides as aliens and intruders, so that in
self-defence they were compelled to arm the congregations
not only against the Charruas and other native marauders,
but also against their far more terrible Christian foes.
They gained several victories over the Paulistas, each
time disarming their subjects (over whom Papal bulls
had granted them absolute control), either fearing mili-
tary revolts, or for religious motives.
Such at least was the policy pursued in Paraguay, but
not everywhere, and in the Brazilian reductions of Eio
Grande all adults received a regular training, mustering
every Sunday at the sound of the drum, and going through
their exercises with lire-arms, and bows and arrows,
and all the manoeuvres of attack and retreat. Then the
arms were replaced in the arsenal till the next Sunday,
and those rewarded who showed progress in the drill.
One of the fathers, Matheus Sanches, even headed an
unprovoked expedition against the Charruas, whom he
wanted to exterminate because they refused to join the
mis^iions. Others led " a countless multitude " a!j;ainst
476 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TliAVEL
the Spaniards and Portuguese commissioners engaged on
some boundary question on the frontiers of their respec-
tive possessions, and in other ways played into the hands
of their implacable enemies.
Their government was an absolute theocracy, in which
they were responsible to nobody, and never troubled even
to frame a civil or criminal code, but meted out justice
at their own pleasure. If seldom severe they were
always stern judges, punishing " venial sins " with prayers,
fasts, and imprisonment, serious offences with the lash,
recalcitrants being flogged to death, as in Kussia. With
the theocracy were combined certain communistic institu-
tions, such as the withdrawal of young children from the
parental care and their education in large schools under
the vigilant eyes of the padres. Here the most rigid
discipline prevailed, and the whole machinery was sup-
ported by a detestable system of espionage, under which
the noblest sentiments of humanity were stifled, and
every spark of personal freedom extinguished. Hence
after the expulsion of the Jesuits the congregations,
possessing no initiative and incapacitated for a free life,
rapidly melted away, a prey either to their own excesses
or to the attacks of more robust tribal groups. The
" Paraguay Missions " of the Middle Parana are now an
uninhabited wilderness, and the population of the above-
mentioned reductions of Eio Grande had fallen from
about 100,000 in 1731 to 7954 in 1814.
The Paraguayans
In the present Paraguayan nation there is said to be
a very large strain of Basque blood, so that one authority
has proposed to call them " Vasco-Guarani " rather than
" Hispano-Guarani." Others have discovered a Teutonic
PARAGUAY 477
element, betrayed by the light shade of the hair in many
of the women, and attributed to the German free-lances
who entered the country with the first Spanish invaders.
But however this be, their most marked qualities seem
to be docility, which is a racial character, and indolence,
which seems to be acquired. In any case the listlessness
and apathy of the men is dwelt upon by most observers,
while the women are described as not only physically
well developed, but also of thrifty industrious habits. It
is cu.rious to notice the custom inherited from their
Guarani ancestors of always walking Indian file, as when
they proceed in the early morning to fetch water from
the river, with their great pitchers balanced on their
heads. Their single white cotton garment produces a
pleasing effect in contrast with their dark complexion.
This flowing gown reaches down to the calves, is low-
necked and short-waisted, a cord serving the purpose of
a girdle.
Many Guarani women are very finely developed, and
all have beautiful teeth ; yet according to our standard
they can scarcely be called handsome, the cheek-bones
being too prominent and the chin too square. Their
large black eyes are shaded by heavy brows, and their
mixed blood is betrayed in their frizzly black and even
reddish hair. They are inveterate smokers, and are
usually seen with a large cigar in their mouths. Even
the little children acquire the habit, and when infants are
restless mothers have Ijeen seen to soothe them by cram-
ming their mouths with the cigar they have been smok-
ing. The severe discipline enforced by the padres in the
reductions appears to have brought about the usual
reaction, and casual unions, unsanctioned either by the
law or the Church, are now the rule rather than the
exception. Nevertheless the devotion of the women to
478 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
their temporary partners is undoubted, and by submission
they have acquired tlie control of the household, so that
when the unions are dissolved, mostly by mutual consent,
the children always follow the mother.
The strangely docile character of the Paraguayans,
for which no parallel can be found except perhaps amongst
the gentle and inoffensive inhabitants of the Liu-Kiu
islands south of Japan, has been attributed to the national
diet, which is almost exclusively vegetarian. Many
abstain altogether from meat, living entirely on manioc
and other vegetables, besides fruits, and especially large
quantities of oranges. Although rum of a very fair
quality is largely distilled from the sugar-cane, it is
prepared mostly for exportation, the general drink of the
people being Paraguay tea.
Topography
It was above seen that, since the expulsion of the
Jesuits and the dispersion of their congregations there
has been a gradual shifting of the populations, from the
Parana basin below the Guayra Tails westwards to the
Paraguay above Corrientes. Even here urban centres
are far from numerous, and the subjoined table shows
that in the whole State there are only five towns with
over 5000 inhabitants: —
Pop. 1895.
Pop. 1S95
Asuncion
45,000
Paraguari .
. 4,500
Villa Rica .
19,000
Villeta
. 4,000
Concepcion
10,000
Villa del Pilar .
. 3,000
San Pedro
8,000
Encarnacion
. 2,500
Luque .
8,000
Ita .
. 2,500
Asuncion, capital of Paraguay, is also the largest and
oldest place in the country. It was founded in 1536
by Ayolas on a terrace 50 feet above the main stream, at
PARAGUAY
479
the point where it ceases to be navigable for sea-going
vessels. Hence Asuncion must always remain the chief
river-side port of the l*araguay river. Before the year
1620 it was the capital of all the Spanish possessions in
the Plate region, and after the declaration of independ-
ence it was considerably enlarged and partly reconstructed,
with several fine buildings, such as the Cabaldo, where
Congress meets, and the cathedral in the Eenascence
t -^.>^rii.i,i gi
l3Jlli'i1***^*l|^TOu
^
PALACE OF LOI'EZ, ASUNCION.
style. The huge palace, forming a conspicuous object
visible from the port, is an ambitious structure erected by
the Dictator, Solano Lopez, who aimed at doing everything
in a grand way. His policy, however, e^'entually ruined
the place, and Asuncion, which in 185 7 had a popula-
tion of nearly 50,000, including the suljurbs, was found
to be completely deserted by tlie Brazilians when they
captured it in 1869 towards the close of the war. Since
then it has again prospered, and is now nearly as large
480 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
as ever, though the signs of former decay are still visible
in some of its grass-grown streets, all disposed at right
angles, but running here and there in some quarters for
long distances through open spaces, unrelieved by a single
structure of any kind.
Luque, the first important station on the railway
running to Villa Rica, may almost be regarded as a
suburb of Asuncion, from which it is distant only about
8 miles. For a moment it was even the seat of govern-
ment after the evacuation of the capital in 1869. But
at present it is chiefly noted for its banana and orange
groves, which extend nearly all the way to the river.-
Paraguari, also a station on the line 45 miles south-
east of Asuncion, stands on the site of one of the
missions, which derived an air of sanctity from the
neighbouring caves, reputed abode of the Apostle St.
Thomas when he came hither to preach the Gospel to
the Guarani nation. The present reputation of Paraguari
is due to the excellent quality of the tobacco which is
grown in the district, and has already found its way to
the European markets. About 50 miles beyond this
place is the flourishing city of Villa Bica, next in size
to the capita], and for many years the inland terminus
of the railway with which it is connected. It occupies
a central position in an extremely fertile district, watered
by the Tibicuary-mini — that is, the " Little Tibicuary," —
which, however, is navigable for steam launches all the
way to A-^illa Eica. The numerous head-streams of the
Tibicuary descending from the slopes of the neighbouring
Cordillera all serve to irrigate the extensive manioc and
tobacco plantations, which are here encircled by densely-
wooded hills. So advantageously situated is Villa Rica,
also an old Jesuit foundation, that it is the necessary
converging point of all the projected railways which
PARAGUAY 481
are so urgently needed for the development of the
immense agricultural resources of the covmtry.
In the whole of the Middle Parana basin included
in Paraguayan territory the only place that can be
called a town is Villa Encarnacion, which stands on the
main stream 54 miles above the lacyreta rapids, over
against the Argentine toAvn of Posadas. These places
have been chosen as tlie future termini of the lines
which are to effect a junction between the Paraguay
and Argentine railway systems. But at this point the
Parana flows with a very wide and swift current, so
that the spanning of the river by a viaduct must prove
a costly as well as a difficult undertaking. Encarnacion,
the Itapua of the natives, was one of the most flourishing
of the reductions, founded in 1624, and noted for its
magnificent church, the treasures of which were plundered
by President Prancia.
On or near the Paraguay, above Asuncion, the only
places calling for mention are Villa Concepcion, on the
left bank, just within the Tropic of Capricorn ; San
Pedro, on the Jujuy, 8 miles above its junction with the
main stream ; and Villa Hayes, on the Gran Chaco side,
a little above the capital. None of them are at present
of any commercial importance, and Concepcion, formerly
a great centre of the mate trade, now awaits the pro-
jected northern railway to revive its fallen fortunes.
Villa Hayes, the only centre of population in Western
Paraguay, is named from the President of the United
States who, in 1879, awarded this wilderness of North-
East Gran Chaco to the republic.
Below Asuncion follow Villeta, Villa Franca, Villa
del Pilar, and the dismantled stronghold of Humaita, in
the order named. Villeta, a few miles west of the
thriving little rural town of Ita, lies midway between
VOL. I 2 I
482 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the Angostura, or " Narrows," where the stream contracts
to a breadth of scarcely 270 feet, and the Lamhar6 bluff
just below Asuncion, which marks the farthest point
reached in 1528 by Sebastian Cabot, at that time in
command of a Spanish expedition to the interior. The
bluff is named from the Payagua chief who here offered
a stout resistance to the invaders. Villeta is a sleepy
little river-side port, embowered in palm and orange
groves.
Villa Franca, a few miles north, and Villa del Pilar,
a few miles south of the Tibicuary confluence, lie well
within the malarious hanados, or " drowned lands," which
fill up the whole of the peninsular region enclosed by
the main streams converging at the Tres Boeas. Nearly
midway between Pilar and the confluence rise the famous
heights of Humaita, where the Paraguayans held out
for two years (1866-68) against the combined land and
river forces of the Allies. Then the great river ran with
blood, and when the Brazilians stormed Itajnrv at the
confluence, such was the slaughter on both sides that
the bodies of the slain floated down-stream for days.
Historic Retrospect — Administration
Paraguay, the " Niobe of Nations," inhabited by the
most peace-loving and unaggressive people in the southern
continent, has, nevertheless, been tlie theatre of one of
the most sanguinary dramas recorded in history. But
the best of qualities carried to excess become vices, and
it will be seen that the Paraguayans have to thank
their excessive meekness, their " invertebrate character,"
for all tlieir woes. Till recent times there were no
" revolutions," as in the other Hispano-American States ;
no domestic troubles or party strife, and since the
PAKAGUAY 483
declaration of independence in 1811 only two foreign
wars. The first, entirely justified, was waged success-
fully against the aggressive Argentines, who, immediately
after the expulsion of the Spaniards, wanted to compel
the Paraguayans to join the Confederate La Plata States.
The second, carried to the point of extermination, was
conducted not by the nation, but by a ruthless Dictator,
who drove his too submissive subjects like sheep to the
shambles in defence of a hopelessly mistaken policy.
Notwithstanding its distance from the Atlantic sea-
board, and the impossibility of establishing regular
communications with the Pacific, Asuncion promised in
early colonial times to become the chief seat of Spanish
sway in the Plate regions. The water highw^ay to the
great estuary was open ; the Guarani people of the
surrounding districts were peaceful and well disposed ;
while the country was safeguarded from the Paulistas
and other Brazilian interlopers, at first by the Parana
rapids, and later by the missions. But the right bank
of the Paraguay remained in the hands of fierce, wild
tribes, and it was by some of these that Ayolas, founder
of Asuncion (1536 or 1537), was murdered on his
return from an adventurous expedition towards Peru in
quest of El Dorado. His successor, Martinez Yrala, for
a time (1542-44) superseded by the famous Nunez,
Cabeza de Vaca, revived the waning fortunes of the
young settlement, and at his death Asuncion was the
most flourishing colony in the whole of the Plate basin.
Then followed a period of anarchy, after which the
" province of Paraguay " became little more than a
geographical expression, as a dependency of the Viceroy
of Peru. Later, this province, which had originally
comprised the whole region as far as, and inclusive of,
Buenos Ayres, was inclvided in the Viceroyalty of Eio de
484 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
la Plata constituted in 1776. During the revolutionaiy
period Paraguay alone achieved its independence without
bloodshed. The last Spanish governor, Bernardo Velasco,
yielded to the will of the people in 1811, when a
triumvirate, including Dr. Jose Gaspar Prancia, was
placed at the head of the administration.
After the above-mentioned war against the Argentines,
who were defeated at Paraguari, and again on the banks
of the Tucuari, the reins of government were seized by
Francia, who was declared Dictator in 1814, and ruled
with extraordinary vigour and rigour till his death in
1840. By Francia was first adopted the fatal policy of
seclusion, the object of which was to preserve the
political integrity of the republic against the Argentines
and others by closing the navigation of the Paraguay,
and cutting off the country from all intercourse with
the outer world. Paraguay fara da se (" Paraguay shall
stand alone"), the dictum of later Italian politicians,
might be taken as the watchword of this policy, which
brought Paraguay to the verge of ruin by exciting the
hostility of all the surrounding states, who were naturally
opposed to the closing of the great waterway flowing
also through their territories. Under Francia's suc-
cessor, Vibal (1840-44), all foreigners continued to be
excluded. The same system of isolation, with certain
necessary modifications, was persisted in by Francia's
nephew, Carlos Antonio Lopez (1844-62), and by this
dictator's son, Francisco Solano Lopez (1862-70), who
organised the whole nation on a militarv basis, and
aimed at the complete control of the main stream by
erecting the strongholds of Olimpo and Humaita on the
Paraguay, and then jointly with Uruguay seizing the
island of Martin Garcia commanding the Parana delta.
But Brazil, acting in concert with Argentina, soon com-
PARAGUAY 485
pelled Uruguay to withdraw from its alliance with Lopez,
who thus found himself confronted by all three Powers
when hostilities broke out in 1865. Here is not the
place to enter into the details of the terrible war which
was maintained by the Dictator single-handed for five
years against overwhelming odds, and ended with his
final overthrow and death by an Argentine spear-thrust
at Cerro-Cora on March 1, 1870. Suf&ce it to say
that the Allies dealt leniently with the heroic survivors,
and, after the inevitable readjustment of frontiers, recog-
nised the political independence of Paraguay.
The Treaty of Peace (August 1870) was followed by
the declaration of a new Constitution on liberal principles,
the legislature being vested in a Congress of two Houses
elected directly by the people, and the executive entrusted
to a President elected for four years, and aided by a
Vice-President and a Cabinet of five responsible ministers.
Since then there have been some political troubles ; but,
on the whole, the Constitution has worked fairly well,
and Paraguay appears to have now entered on a period
of rest and material prosperity. The revenue and ex-
penditure are generally balanced at about £1,000,000,
while the outstanding debt amounted to £995,000 in
1898. There is now no army to provide for beyond a
small force of about 1500 men, maintained chiefly to
preserve internal order.
Catholicism is the State religion, the free exercise of
other forms of worship being permitted. Education is
free and compulsory, and in 1897 the elementary schools
were attended by 23,000 pupils; but at that date only
20 per cent of the native adult population could read
and write. Instruction is imparted both in Guarani,
which is still generally spoken, and in Spanish, which
is the official language of the country.
CHAPTEK XIV
BRAZIL
Extent — Frontier Questions — Area — Population — Ethnical Elements of
the Population and their Distribution — Physical Features — Seaboard,
Headlands and Islands — Orography — The Serra do Mar — The Serra
do Espinha90^The Western Serras, Plateaux, and Campos — Geological
Formations — The Brazilian Lowlands and Woodlands — Hydrography
— The Amazon — Estuary — Lateral Channels and Islands — The
Amazonian Affluents — The Jurua, Purus, and Madeira — The
Tapajos, Xingu, and Tocantins — The Rio Negro and other Northern
Affluents — The S. Francisco and other Coast-Streams.
Extent — Frontier Questions — Area — Population
" The United States of Brazil," as this vast common-
wealth is officially designated, ranks for size amongst
the Great Powers in the world, being exceeded in
superficial area only by the British, Ptussian, and Chinese
Empires, and the United States of North America.
Comprising rather more than one-half of the southern
continent, it is somewhat larger than all the Hispano-
American States, together with the Guianas, and is even
conterminous with every one of these political divisions,
Chili alone excepted. Brazil is thus bounded landwards
by French, Dutch and British Guiana, and Venezuela
on the north, by Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and
Paraguay on the west, by Argentina and Uruguay on
the south, and eastwards by the Atlantic Ocean.
But frontier questions are still pending v.ith several
BRAZIL 487
of the contiguous States, involving, especially in the north
and north-west, some large but mostly unsettled tracts
many thousand square miles in extent. Thus, towards
French Guiana the whole region between the Araguay
and the Oyapok rivers has long been a subject of litiga-
tion, both sides basing their claims on an obscurely
worded article of the treaty of Utrecht. But by the
Convention of April 1897 the question was referred
to the Swiss Government, which, by the award of
December 1, 1900, assigned to Brazil nearly the
whole of the contested territory. Farther west a less
extensive zone in the upper valley of the Rio Branco, a
head branch of the lUo Negro, forms a bone of conten-
tion, also of long standing, between Brazil, Venezuela,
and British Guiana. But all points in dispute with
Argentina were finally settled in F'ebruary 1895 by
President Cleveland of the United States, to whose
decision the matter had been submitted by the litigants.
Here the frontier is formed by the San Antonio afiiuent
of the I-Guazu and the Pepiri Guazu altluent of the
Uruguay from their confluences to their sources, and then
by a straight line drawn from source to source of these
rivers. All other boundary questions, whether settled or
still pending, have been dealt with in previous chapters.
Between French Guiana and Uruguay the Brazilian
seaboard develops a vast eastward bend, which at Cape
S. Eoque below the equator approaches nearer than any
other point of the new world to the eastern hemisphere.
This coast-line, which describes a series of secondary
curves in the north, but is diversified by few islands or
deep inlets except at the Amazon estuary, Bahia, and
Eio, has a total length of 5900 miles. As the land-
ward frontiers are estimated at over 10,000 miles, the
periphery has a total length of perhaps 16,000 miles,
488
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGliAPHY AND TRAVEL
including all those tracts which are still the subject of
litigation with the neighbouring States.
But within its undisputed limitS; Brazil has a super-
ficial area of nearly 3,210,000 square miles, with a
total population of 14,334,000, as at first returned by
the census of 1890, but afterwards raised to 16,330,000
by an official revision of the main results. According
to the previous census of 1872 the population was
9,930,000 at that date, so that, if these figures can be
trusted, there has been an increase of no less than
6,400,000 in eighteeen years. From the subjoined
table of the areas and populations of the twenty-one
States for 1890, it wiU be seen that the vast majority
of the inhabitants are still concentrated in the eastern
parts of the republic, that is, on the Atlantic seaboard : —
states.
Amazonas
Para
Maranhao
Piauhy
Ceara
Eio Grande do N
Parahiba
Pernambuco
Alagoas
Sergipe
Bahia
Espirito Santo
Federal District
Rio de Janeiro
S. Paulo .
Parana
Santa Catharina
Eio Grande do Sul
Minas Geraes
Goyaz
Matto Grosso
orte
Total
Area in
sq. miles.
732,460
443,653
177,566
116,218
40,258
22,195
28,854
49,625
22,583
7,370
164,649
17,312
538
26,634
112,330
85,453
37,436
91,335
222,160
288,546
532,708
3,209,878
Population
(1S90).
207,610
859,821
459,040
202,222
881,686
313,979
382,387
1,101,539
648,009
461,307
1,683,141
382,137
674,972
1,227,575
1,637,354
626,722
259,802
880,878
3,009,023
260,395
170,417
16.330.216
BRAZIL 489
Ethnical Elements of the Population and their
Distribution
Here we see that the three great inland States of
Amazonas, Goyaz, and Matto Grosso, with an area of
over 1,500,000 squares miles, have a collective popula-
tion of less than 640,000, whereas the twelve more
important Atlantic States, with an area of less than
1,310,000 square miles, have a population of nearly
13,500,000, while the little Federal District, a few
hundred square miles in extent, has three times more
inhabitants than the vast province of Amazonas, which
is more than one-sixth the size of Europe. Such a dis-
tribution, taken in connection with the relatively slight
density of the population generally — about five persons
per square mile — simply means that the greater part of
the interior still consists mainly of unsettled backwoods,
while even the long-occupied coast region is still but
thinly peopled — not more than ten persons per square
mile. It has been calculated that, were Brazil as
densely peopled as Belgium, it would contain upwards of
1,600,000,000 inhabitants, that is, more than the whole
world, according to the latest estimates.
As regards the constituent elements of the population,
Brazil differs in some important respects from all the
Hispano-American States. In these, broadly speaking,
there are only two elements — the aborigines and the
Europeans — who are for the most part merged in
varying proportions in dominant nationalities of Spanish
speech. Here and there — Peru and Bolivia — the fusion
is far from complete ; but, speaking roughly, it may be
regarded as well advanced, so much so that, in all fore-
casts of the destinies of Spanish America, it has to be
accepted as an established fact. " For better for worse,"
490 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPIIY AND TRAVEL
the two races are here welded together in a new ethnic
family for all time to come, the one important exception
being Uruguay and the adjacent parts of Argentina,
where the aboriginal element is least pronounced, or even
in process of elimination.
In Brazil the relations are different. In the first
place we have here three distinct elements — the abori-
gines, the Negroes, and the Europeans — and these also
are merged in varying proportions in a mixed Lusitano-
American nationality, which has hitherto been dominant
and is of Portuguese speech. But, in the second place,
the triple fusion is not universal, but mainly confined to
the Atlantic States between the Amazon estuary and
Eio de Janeiro, that is, to those lying within the torrid
zone. Here is the true home of that section of the
Brazilian people, in which are represented all the endless
and indefinable shades of transition between the three
specified races, as roughly indicated in the table of
Mestizo terminology at p. 64. Then follow the Southern
States of S. Paulo, Parana, Santa Catharina, and Rio
G-rande do Sul, with which, Ijecause of its great altitude
and special historic development, must be grouped the
vast and relatively populous region of Miuas Geraes.
Here we have no " triple fusion," the negro element being
everywhere mainly absent, but, as in Spanish America, an
amalgam of aborigines and whites,' represented chiefly by
the already described Paulistas (p. 62). These Paulistas,
forming the bulk of the population in Minas Geraes,
and in all the early settlements of the conterminous
western and southern regions, constitute the second
section of the Brazilian peoi3le, distinguished from the
first by the absence of black blood. Lastly, the aboriginal
element tends to disappear in the direction of the south,
where the white element is continually strengthened by
BRAZIL 491
direct accessions from various parts of Europe, but
especially Italy, Portugal, and Austria. In Kio Grande
do Sul there were fifteen European colonies with a col-
lective population of 110,000 out of a total general
population of 880,000 in 1890, and between the years
1855 and 1896 as many as 1,700,000 European emi-
grants settled in Brazil, the vast majority in the southern
States. During the period from 1873 to 1886, for
which alone full accurate returns are available, the inimi-
cjrants numbered 304,796, distributed asunder:^ —
Italians
112,279
French
. 3,475
Portuguese .
110,891
British
. 2,215
Germans
23,469
Swiss .
479
Spaniards
15,684
Russians
417
AiTStrians
. 9,022
Sundries
. 26,868
Since then the relative positions of these nationalities
have undergone some change, and the Austrians, for
instance, are now much more numerous than the Ger-
mans. But the superiority of South over North
Europeans remains as great as ever, or even tends to
increase, as in the year 1896, when the immigrants of
Latin speech, mainly Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian,
numbered about 140,000, and others (Germans, English,
Magyars, etc.) only 17,000. It is further to be noticed
that some of the lands where these immigrants settle lie
within or just beyond the Tropic of Capricorn (S. Paulo,
Parana), and are consequently more suited for South than
for North European settlement. Hence the hopes at one
time entertained by the Germans of establishing them-
selves permanently and independently in South Brazil,
and even of here creating a " Neudeutschland," seem
already dispelled. They can only enter, with the English
and other Teutons, as a secondary element of minor
1 Oskar Canstatt, Das Eejncblikamsche Brasilien (1899), p. 637.
492 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVP^L
importance, into the general blend, which is now in pro-
gress, and promises to result in a third section of the
Brazilian people, differing from the two others in the
absence both of Negro and of aboriginal blood. But an
analogous process is simultaneously going on in the
adjacent Argentine and Uruguayan lands, the only differ-
ence being that here Spanish takes the place of the
closely allied Portuguese, as the dominant linguistic
factor. Thus is being formed, in a mainly temperate
region, about one-fourth the size of Europe, a new
ethnical group of nearly pure Mediterranean (South
European) stock, capable of almost unlimited expansion,
and destined perhaps to serve in the south as a set-off to
the Anglo-Saxon predominance north of the equator.
At least in the face of such an expansion present political
frontiers cease to be of weight, except perhaps to indicate
the future frontiers of a great Latin confederacy created
" to redress the balance of the north."
In the absence of later returns, the present propor-
tions of whites (using the term in an elastic sense), blacks
and aborigines can only be approximately estimated
from the census of 1872, when those classed as whites
numbered 3,787,000 ; Mestizoes, 3,802,000 ; Negroes,
1,955,000; and Indians 387,000. A calculation made
on this basis, with some later documentary evidence,
gives the population for 1897 according to races as
under : —
Pure whites, mostly South Europeans .... 2,400,000
Reputed whites, with slight Negro or Indian strain . 2,700,000
Full-blood Negroes, chieflj' from Angola and Upper Guinea 2,300,000
Other half-castes of all shades 8,800,000
Semi-civilised or settled Indians ..... 450,000
AVild or Independent Indians 350,000
Total . .
17,000,000
BRAZIL
493
In general the pure whites are dominant in the
southern extra-tropical States, the reputed whites in
Minas Geraes and all the large centres of population, the
half-castes forming the substratum almost everywhere,
while the Negroes are mainly confined to the north-east
Atlantic States, and the Indians to the States of Para,
Goyaz, Matto Grosso, and Amazonas.
The various main sections, as above defined, may now
be roughly determined, as regards their respective area
and populations, as under : —
Sections.
I
White, Indian,
and Negro
blends, and
full-blood
Negroes.
II
White and
Indian blends.
Ill
White blends
(S. Europeans
mainly).
IV
Full-blood
Indians.
Domain.
North-East Atlantic States
■ mainly, but including '
Rio de Janeiro.
} Minas Geraes, parts of S. ^
Paulo and neighbouring r
lands. J
Parts of S. Paulo and Rio
de Janeiro, Parana, Sta
Catharina, Rio Grande
do Sal.
900,000
Pop. (est. 1897).
5,600,000
500,000 8,100,000
300,000
Amazonas, Matto Grosso,'
Parts of Goyaz and Para, j- 1,600,000
mainly.
2,500,000
800,000
Total 3,300,000 17.000,000
Physical Features — Seaboard — Headlands and Islands
In its main outlines Brazil presents a curious resem-
blance to the Southern Continent, of which it forms the
eastern section, and in which it appears as if encap-
sulated, like a box within a box. Thus both are of
irregular triangular shape, with sides partly coinciding,
494 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
partly overlapping, broadening out in the north and
tapering steadily southwards. The resemblance in gene-
ral outline is well seen by following the contour line
from the Sierra de Santa Marta to Cape S. Eoque, and
then from this headland to Fuegia, where in the north
the general trend of the continental sealjoard is con-
tinued beyond the Guianas by that of Brazil, while in
the south the Brazilian seaboard is continued beyond
Eio Grande do Sul in the same normal direction to the
extremity of the continent.
On the whole the Brazilian seaboard maintains the
same monotonous aspect as that of the rest of the
continent. The headlands — Orange, do Norte, Raso,
Branco, S. Agostinho, S. ThomS, Frio — stand out perhaps
in somewhat bolder relief. Patriotic geographers also
enumerate as many as forty-two natural havens. But
very few of these can be regarded as good harliours.
The safest and most commodious, taking them in the
direction from, -north to south, are P«ra, Maranliao,
Parahiba, Pernamhuco, Mageio, Aracaju, Bahia, Ilheos,
Santa Cruz, Porto Seguro, Victoria, Rio de Janeiro,
Santos, Paranagua, Santa Catharina, Rio Grande do Sul.
In this respect the least favoured by nature is the north
coast which, besides the want of convenient seaports,
suffers also from the presence of dangerous shoals and
quicksands. Here the fluvial estuaries are nearly all
obstructed on their east side by sandl)anks which, under
the influence of the trade winds setting for a great part
of the year from the east, accumulate about the river
mouths, and develop those shifting bars which are so
dangerous to the navigation of these waters. Such bars
occur, even in the south, as at Eio Grande, while the
approaches to Pernambuco are beset by an extensive reef,
probably of coralline origin. Coral reefs also occur on
BRAZIL 495
the coast of Maranlnio, built up by two species of polyps
said to be peculiar to the Brazilian waters.
Apart from the fluvial formations in the Amazon
estuary — Marajo (Joannes), Mexiana, Caviana — the only
islands worthy of the name are Itaparica at Bahia Bay ;
Grande, south of Rio de Janeiro ; >Sehastido, on the coast
of S. Paulo ; S. Francisco, below Paranagua Bay ; and
Sta Catharina on the coast of Santa Catharina, all lying-
close to the mainland, of wdiich they are merely detached
fragments. Politically to Brazil belong also the oceanic
islets of Fernando Noronha, north-east of Cape S. Eoque ;
the Abrolhos and Trinidad, with Martin Vaz, east by
north of Rio de Janeiro. Fernando Noronha, so named
from its first Portuguese colonist, is about 5 miles
long and nearly 2 miles broad, and terminates in the
" Pyramid," a lofty peak rising above the surrounding-
woods. The island is mainly of volcanic origin, and the
neighboviring reefs partly of coralline formation. Its
rocky soil being scarcely cultivable, Fernando Noronha
is used by the Brazilian Government exclusively as a
penal settlement. The convicts appear to be employed
chiefly in hunting down the myriads of rats, which have
overrun the island since their introduction some years ago.
The Abrolhos, or Santa Barbara, i'orm a group of
five islets and numerous reefs, which lie about 34 miles
from the coast between Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. They
are the " Manacles " of Brazil, being much dreaded by
skippers, as appears from their name, Abra os Olhos
(" Keep your eyes open "). Santa Barbara, the alternati^ e
name, is taken from the largest member of the group,
which is about a mile long, but, like all the others,
rocky, and destitute of spring water and vegetation.
Trinidad, or Ascensdo, 680 miles east of the coast of
Espirito Santo, is important enough to have formed a
496 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
subject of contention between Brazil and Great Britain.
Yet it is less than 4 miles long, and only 2 miles broad,
and its only inhabitants are wild cats and goats. But
Trinidad, also called Ascensdo, because discovered by
Tristam da Cunha on the feast of the Ascension, may
have a prospective value either as a coaling or a telegraph
station.
Orography — The Serra do Mar
Brazil is, broadly speaking, divided into two great
physical regions of unequal extent — the eastern and
central uplands, which represent all that now remains of
the ancient Brazilian highlands, and the northern and
western lowlands, which have replaced the ancient inland
sea. The uplands, which are thus completely isolated
by low-lying and mostly wooded plains, may be described
as an undulating plateau, falling somewhat abruptly
towards the Atlantic, and stretching in long gentle
inclines inland towards the Amazon and Parana basins.
Here the land stands at a mean elevation of about 3000
feet, scarcely anywhere falling below 2000 or rising-
above 5000 feet, except in the fragmentary mountain
ranges by which it is traversed mainly in the direction
from south to north. Three such irregular chains, which
in places assume the aspect rather of high plateaux than
of true ranges, follow in roughly parallel lines from the
Atlantic seaboard inland, while a fourth bends round in
Matto Grosso from south to west between the waters
flowing north to the Amazon and south to the Paraguay
basin.
In the extreme south, where, as already described,
the whole region tapers nearly to a point, the outer
meridional chain takes the name of the Serra do Mar,
that is, the " Coast Eange," and although approaching
BRAZIL 497
close to the shore, forms nevertheless the true divide
towards the Parana basin. Thus the traveller, climbing
the heights at Santos and some other points, finds on
reaching the plateau that he has also reached the sources
of the Eio G-rande and other streams all flowing west-
wards to the Parana or to the Uruguay. But between
these streams and those which farther south trend east
to the large coast lagoon known as the Lagoa dos Patos,
there stretches a broken tableland which is connected
southwards with the Cuchilla Grande of Uruguay, and
is skirted northwards by a ridge bearing the same name
in Portuguese, — Coxilha Grande. Around this tableland
other short chains radiate in all directions, while the
Serra do Mar, called also Serra Geral (" Main Eange "),
continues to follow the coast-line through the States of
Santa Catharina, Eio de Janeiro, Espirito Santo and
Bahia, its different sections being locally known as TJie
Organs, the Serra dos Aimores, and by other designations.
The Organs, so named from the fanciful resemblance
of their weathered cliffs to the pipes of a great organ,
present a singularly imposing and romantic aspect, when
viewed from the land-locked waters of Eio de Janeiro.
" Between the northern shore and the foot of the moun-
tains is a level swampy tract, evidently filled up by the
detritus borne down by the numerous streams, and
beyond this the mountain range rises very abruptly
from the plain. It is towards its eastern extremity that
the Serra shows that remarkable series of granitic
pinnacles of nearly equal height, appearing vertical from
a distance, that suggested the likeness to the pipes of
an organ, whence these mountains obtained their name.
The height of the loftier part has been estimated at
7500 feet above sea-level."-^
1 Ball, op. cit. p. 326.
VOL. I 2 K
498 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TliAVEL
But> according to Liais, the highest points scarcely
exceed 6650 feet, although the main range maintains
a considerable elevation as far north as the plains of
Campos and the mouth of the Parahiba do Sul, where
the Fracle de MacaM peak, 5700 feet high, is visible a
long way seawards. The detritus referred to by Ball
appears to be at least partly of morainic origin, boulders,
shingle, and gravels deposited by the glaciers which
formerly descended down to the plains. The finer debris,
probably due to erosion, is all bound together by a red
earth similar to that which covers large tracts in Paraguay
and S. Paulo, and is found to be specially suitable for
the cultivation of coft'ee.
The Serra do Espinhaco
Beyond the Parahiba do Sul stretches the second
meridional chain, the Serra dcv Mantiqueira, called also
the Serra do Espinhaco, that is the " Spinal Pange,"
which is in fact the " Backbone " of the Brazilian system.
Beginning north of S. Paulo and of the Tiete Valley,
under the name of the Serra de Cantareira, it rises
gradually in the direction of the north-east, and nearly
due west of Eio de Janeiro culminates in the Itatiaya
Peak, which, although falHng below 10,000 or perhaps
even 9000 feet, is nevertheless generally regarded as the
loftiest summit in the whole of Brazil. It is said to lie
a long extinct volcano, and Burton even speaks of two
craters, sulphur beds and sulphurous springs as still
visible, surmounted, however, by the Agulhas Negras, or
"Black Needles," three sharp peaks flecked w4th snow
for a few days every winter.
Beyond Itatiaya the Mantiqueira range bends round
to the north, and east of Barbacena, where it is known
BRAZIL 499
as the Serra do Sapateiro, and throws off a number
of branches radiating in various directions over the
central plateau. While the main range continues its
northerly trend, another chain, variously known in its
different section as the Serra de Macaco, the Serra de S.
Geraldo, the Serra de S. Sehastiao, and the Serra do
Brigadeiro, converges north-eastwards in the coast
system. A third branch, running west, has received the
name of the Uspigdo das Vertentes (" Crest of the Water-
sheds "), because it forms the divide between the S.
Francisco basin in the north and the Parana in the
south. In the same Barbacena knot two other fluvial
basins have their origin — that of the Eio Pomba, a south-
easterly affluent of the Parahiba do Sul, and that of the
Eio Doce, which runs north-eastwards to the Atlantic.
North of the Barbacena knot, which is certainly one
of the chief centres of dispersion for the Brazilian rivers,
the Serra do Espinhago runs at a mean altitude of about
4000 feet for a distance of nearly 200 miles in the
direction of the north through the rich mineral region
of Minas Geraes. In this section the loftiest peaks are
Itacolumi, just south of Ouro Preto (5 750 feet), and
Itamhe, a little east of Diamantina (4350 feet).
Itacolumi, that is, the " Giant," gives its name to the
peculiar laminated quartz formation, which covers vast
spaces in Brazil, and in some districts yields both gold
and diamonds. Itambe, sometimes wrongly described as
the highest peak of the EspinhaQO range, was ascended
in 1899 by Mr. H. B. Beaumont, not, however, for the
first time. Although the natives of the district had no
tradition of any previous ascent, it was certainly scaled
early in the nineteenth century by the German ex-
plorers, Spix and Martius.^
^ Geograph. Jour. June 1899. p. 662.
500 COMPENDIUM OF GP^OGltAPHY AND TRAVEL
From Itambe is thrown off north-eastwards, between
the Doce and Juquitinha valleys, the ^erra do Chifre,
which is still for the most part unexplored, but is known
to converge with the Serra dos Aimores beyond the Rio
Mucury Valley. North of Diamantina the EspinhaQO is
still continued under various names, such as the Serra
do Gro.o Mogol, the Serra Branca, the Serra das Almas,
the Serra Preta, the Serra Chapada Diamantina, as far
as the great easterly bend of the Eio S. Francisco.
Here the Serras merge in a high plateau, which is
traversed by a fluvial valley with a douple incline aflbrd-
iug a continuous waterway between the S. Francisco
and Tocantins basins. The whole of the region between
the S. Francisco and the Atlantic presents the aspect of
a very old plateau, which has been greatly reduced by
erosion, and carved by the running waters into distinct
sections, wdiich affect the appearance of low mountain
ranges disposed in various directions. Thus at Cape
Trio, terminal point of the Serra do Mar proper, this
maritime range consists of " great scarped hills of granitic
gneiss ; hoary, time-worn, and weather-beaten defenders
of the coast-line against the encroachments of the sea." ^
The Western Serras, Plateaux, and Campos
West of the Rio S. Francisco other somewhat similar
crests, originating in a plateau which is connected by
the Serra das Vertentes with the Espinhago, are
developed parallel with, but at a lower elevation than,
the " Backbone." Here the Serra da Canastra, the Serra
das Araras, the Chajxida das 3fangaheirns, the Serra de
Piauhy, follow in the direction of the north and north-
east, throwing oft" lateral spurs between all the river
^ J. W. Wells, Three Thousand Miles throur/h Braxil, vol. ii. l^. 362.
BRAZIL 501
valleys and in places broadening out into elevated
plateaux.
West of the Araguaya, that is, the great western
branch of the Tocantins, the same general conformation
is reproduced. Here the Goyaz plateau, which is
traversed by the PerirUos {Pyrenees), with their many
ramifying offshoots, forms a western continuation of the
Vertentes, and develops farther west the Serra de Santa
Martha, which throws off one branch between the
Araguaya and Xingu Valleys, and another southwards to
the Sierra de Mbaracayu on the Paraguay frontier.
Between the sources of the Xingu and Tapajos in the
north and those of the Paraguay and its head-streams in
the south, the water-parting takes the name of the Serra
do Pary or Diamantina, and this low range traverses
the Matto Grosso plateau as the Cordilhcira dos Parcxis —
(Parecis), and the Cordilheira Geral mainly in a westerly
direction all the way to the great falls of the Madeira.
It is noteworthy that these " Serras " and " Cordil-
heiras " are also locally called " Campos " — Campos dos
Parexis about the numerous head-waters of the Tapajos
and elsewhere. They are in fact not so much true ranges
as the steep rocky escarpments of the great central
tableland, which merges gradually northwards in the
Amazonian plains, and falls abruptly southwards down
to the Paraguay basin. Hence to those dwelling to the
south they look like long mountain ranges of moderate
altitude, and are by them called Seri'as and Cordilheiras,
while for the inhabitants of the northern slopes they are
nothing but Campos, scarcely to be distinguished from
the surrounding open and undulating plateaux, which
are known by this name throughout Central Brazil.
But these upland campos or chapadas, which have a
general incline towards the encircling Amazonian low-
502 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
lands, differ greatly in their main features, according to
their latitude and height above the sea. But all alike
present in their herbaceous or scrubby vegetation, or
else their park-like appearance, with isolated clumps of •
trees dotted over the grassy plains, the sharpest contrast
to the primeval woodlands of the seaboard and especially
of the Amazonian lowlands. The natives distinguish
between the campos cerrados (" closed plains "), with
numerous small groves, woods, or thickets, and the
campos ahertos (" open plains "), where little is to be seen
except herbaceous or scrubby growths. But the campos
are all everywhere traversed by chains of low and
o-enerally rounded hills, and furrowed by broad rather
than deep river-beds. In some isolated districts they
even present the same monotonous aspect as the
Argentine pampas or the Venezuelan llanos. As a rule
the campos abertos stand at a higher altitude than the
cerrados, where the pasture-lands are interspersed with
clusters of low trees or shrubs.
In general the Brazilian uplands may be described as
level, ridged, or undulating land "covered with grass
only in places, or in others by grass, bush, flowering
plants, cacti, and dwarf palms, or by the cerrados, a
name that cannot be rendered in English, as there is
nothing in Europe to correspond to it ; practically it
means thick bush, having much the appearance of a
wild neglected English orchard, overgrown with under-
wood, bushes, and grasses ; the trees are small, extremely
distorted, and much scattered; they are of extremely
hardy varieties, and resist equally heat and cold, wet and
drought. Tliese campos lands often extend over great
areas ; in Goyaz one can travel for several days through
such lands without once sighting forest of any kind.
The atmosphere of these campos, — the savannahs or
BRAZIL 503
pi'ciiries of Brazil, is most delightful and exhilarating.
To thoroughly appreciate it one must have resided for
some time amidst the dark gloom of the forests, in their
damp humid air, impregnated with the myriad odours
of fragrant or offensive plants, and of rotting vegetation,
and then emerge, like from night to day, on to these
bright breezy uplands, sparkling with sunlight, gemmed
with flowers, fragrant with sweet perfumes, and lively
with the sounds of birds, — whistling, screaming, and
warbling a noisy concert, — then how one will feel revived,
and take in the pure, serene atmosphere, full of ozone,
eagerly and with boyish inclinations to shout, to gallop
your horse, anything to express your feeling of ecstasy
and delight. From the savannahs of Roraima right
through Brazil to its southern provinces is found on
these uplands this glorious atmosphere. But delightful
as it is, this campos land is considered, north of the
latitude of Ouro Preto, unfit for anything but pastoral
purposes. South of this division the soil improves in
richness and moisture, and much of it can be adapted
to the cultivation of cereals" (Wells, vol. ii. p. 372).
In many places, and especially in the southern
provinces, the long lines of serras, rising little above the
level of the plateau, form far less conspicuous objects in
the landscape than might be supposed from their local
designations. Thus in the State of S. Paulo the observer
is especially struck by the insignificant appearance of
the " mountains," to which his attention is drawn by the
native guides. " I saw nothing," writes Mr. Ball, " that
would elsewhere be called a mountain range. The out-
lines were in most places rounded and covered with
vegetation; but at intervals occurred steep conical
masses, of the same general type as the sugar-loaf peaks
surrounding the Bay of Eio de Janeiro. However steep,
504 CO-MrENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the rocks nowhere showed angular peaks or edges, these
being always more or less rounded" (p. 313).
Geological Formations
As in so many other parts of the Brazilian uplands,
these southern plateaux appear, beneath the crust of
vegetable soil, to consist entirely of reddish arenaceous
deposits resulting from the erosion and decomposition
of the prevailing gneiss or granite rocks. Thus in the
valley of the Parahiba do Sul thick beds of the same
coarse-grained, red arenaceous deposits are everywhere
to be seen, while on the slopes of the hills the same
material lies like so much talus at the base of the round
granite masses higher up. That such is the true origin
of the red earth, which was at one time associated with
the phenomenon of glaciation, appears evident from its
constituent elements and diffusion over an immensely
wide area. " The substance and formation of this material
may be described as a sheet of red, unstratified clay,
interspersed with pebbles, and boulders overlying the
rock in place. The stiff, soft clay contains within itself
all the mineralogical elements usually found in old
metamorphic rock, such as granite, gneiss, mica, clay-
slate, etc. ; the boulders are usually masses of a kind of
greenstone, composed of an equal amount of greenish-
black hornblende and felspar, and they are entirely
foreign to the rocks they often rest upon " (Wells, vol. ii.
p. 373). The absence of sedimentary remains is most
remarkable, and must be accepted as a conclusive proof
of the great age of the geological formations throughout
most of the Brazilian uplands.
A general survey of the whole region shows that the
prevailing formations may be reduced to three groups —
BRAZIL 505
primitive, transitional, and tertiary. The primitive rocks
occur especially in the Serra do Mar, which for 600 or
700 miles forms the seaward escarpment of the plateau
between Pernambuco and Uruguay. In the Espinhaco,
where gold and diamonds chiefly abound, the higher
strata would appear to consist largely of Silurian and
even older sedimentary rocks. But gneiss and granites,
including Syenite, are the main constituents of this
range, where they are in association with talcose slates,
flints, and micaceous schists, and in general those above-
mentioned quartz formations known as itacolumite.
To the prevalence of gneiss are due the pyramidal and
jagged peaks of the cliffs in the Serra do Mar, while the
more rounded, dome-shaped summits betray the presence
of granites in the Espinha90 system. Farther inland
the plateau consists mostly of primitive schists, talc,
quartzites, hornblende, granulated limestones, itacolumite
and itabirite, that is a micaceous variety of hematite,
like the specular schists of the Carolinas, named from
Mount Ita.bira north of Ouro Preto.
Tertiary formations occur both as marine and fresh-
water deposits, the former along the inlets between
Bahia and Kio de Janeiro, the latter at several points
along the coast of S. Paulo. On the seaboard are also
met the Old Red Sandstones, whicli prevail so largely in
Goyaz and Maranhao, and are in places highly auriferous.
Gold is found also in association with common iron -pyrites
in the quartzite rocks, and is washed down with the
sands of many rivers, while diamonds occur more com-
monly in the coarser gravels. The extensive sandstone
rocks in Matto Grosso and other little known regions
appear all to belong to the earlier periods. A widely-
diffused deposit is the so-called Caiiga, a conglomerate
of all kinds of primitive and later elements formed by
506 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the weathering and erosion of the old Brazilian highlands.
This canga is met not only in the river valleys and on
the low-lying plains, but also on the slopes of the hills
and even on the crests of the mountain ranges, covering
them with a blackish incrustation. Tlie same formation
occupies wide areas in Goyaz, S. Paulo, and Matto Grosso,
as well as in many parts of Argentina.
Eecent surveys have revealed in Pernarnbuco the
presence of iron, besides gold, silver, antimony, agates,
and coal. Mineral waters with highly curative qualities
come to the surface in many places, and are specially
copious at Lagoa Santa, in the valley of the Eio das
Velhas, Minas Geraes. But Lagoa Santa and the neigh-
bouring; district of Cantagallo in the State of Eio de
Janeiro are more famous for their numerous sandstone and
limestone caves, where have been found vast quantities
of the remains of now extinct animals, including those
of man himself. Here have been discovered as many as
100 species of mammals and 30 of reptiles, birds and
the like, amongst them the megatherium, a huge ape, a
jaguar twice the size of the living species, a cabiai as
large as a tapir, and a horse like that of the Old World,
although everywhere extinct in America before the
discovery. All these were in close contact with fossil
man, while in the Sumidouro caves were brought to light
the remains of over thirty human beings, together with
numerous stone implements rudely fashioned, like those
of the Old Stone Age in Europe and North Africa. All
the skulls except one were of the long-headed type, like
that of the Botocudos, Tehuelches, Puegians, and other
aborifdnes still surviving in the southern continent.
Besides those of Lagoa Santa, numerous other springs,
especially chalybeates, occur in other parts of Minas
Geraes, as well as in Eio de Janeiro, S. I'aulo, Maranhao,
BRAZIL 507
Piauhy, Eio Grande do Norte, Espirito Santo, and else-
where. Nearly all contain iron in solution with an
excess of carbonic acid, and many have a pleasant taste,
while fully as efficacious as those of Europe. The much
frequented hot sulphur springs of Calclas in Minas
Geraes have even the reputation of being the best in the
world, especially for rheumatic and scrofulous affections.
It is noteworthy that although thermal sources, some
with a temperature of 100° or even 120° Fahr., are far
from rare, no volcanoes, with the doubtful exception of
Itatiaya, have yet been discovered in any part of Brazil.
This region is also free from underground disturbances,
although a few slight earthquake shocks were for the
first time recorded at various points of Santa Catharina
in the year 1898.
The Brazilian Lowlands and Woodlands
But all such phenomena belong entirely to the eastern
section of Brazil, to the region that has here been defined
as the Brazilian Uplands. This region, whose western
limits are somewhat roughly indicated by the middle
course of the Madeira about the Great Falls, differs in a
very marked degree from the north-western section of
Bi-azil — the Brazilian Lowlands, which were to a large
extent comprised within the limits of the ancient inland
sea. Politically the lowlands include the whole of the
state of Amazonas, with the greater part of Para and
Maranhao, that is to say, the valley of the Amazon with
the lower courses of its northern and southern affluents,
the lower Tocantins and the neighl^ouring coast-streams
as far as the Parahiba do Norte. They stand at a mean
altitude of probably less than 400 feet, rising in the
extreme north (Brazilian Guiana) and in the extreme
508 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
.south (Matto Grosso, Goyaz) to 1000 feet and upwards,
and comprising about one-fourth of the republic, or some-
what over 800,000 square miles.
This immense region, traversed by the largest fluvial
system and still clothed wdth the largest virgin forests
of the globe, and almost as level and uniform as the
marine waters which it has displaced, is physiographic-
ally distinct not only from the Brazilian Uplands, but in
many respects from the rest of the continent. Fringed
north and south by escarpments of primitive and
Archaean origin, and disposed transversely to the general
trend of the mainland, the great Amazonian depression
is emphatically a new land, covered everywhere with
deposits of recent formation. Even the sandstone hills
which rise here and there above the surface are relatively
modern, or at least younger than the rocks of the
Guianas and the eastern uplands. Many present per-
fectly smooth and level summits like polished tables, and
appear to have been formerly continuous over vast
spaces, their present isolation being due, according to
Agassiz, to a prodigious amount of denudation. The
unbroken surface formed originally a vast flooded plain
which has been deeply furrowed and eroded, nothing now
remaining except those isolated fragments, hard enough
to resist the action of the waters by which all the rest
has been swept away.
To the observer ascending the Amazon, these table-
topped heights form a conspicuous feature of the land-
scape, especially about and above the Tapajos confluence,
at Erere and Obidos on the left bank and near Santarem
on the opposite side. Here the main stream is confined
to a relatively narrow channel by the opposing cliffs,
through which it appears to have carved a passage sea-
wards (see p. 14). " Strange and interesting as is the
BRAZIL 509
appearance of these clifls, 1000 feet high, they are not
exceptional to the basin of the Amazon. At its farthest
western extremity in the Serra de Cupati, bordering the
banks of the Eio Japura, and also in the western face of
the Chapada da Mangabeira, are encountered identical
formations, and even to the north in Eoraima, and its
brother, Kukenam, also exists a somewhat similar appear-
ance. These great precipitous bluffs and isolated table-
topped hills are indicative, or at least suggestive, of a
great denudation that has either long since occurred or is
yet happening " (Wells, vol. ii. p. 336).
But the most striking feature of these boundless
wooded plains is the superabundance of the liquid ele-
ment, so much so that the Amazonian depression might in
a sense be almost described as a terraqueous domain. Next
to this wildernesss of waters, its most distinguishing
character are its interminable woodlands. Nowhere else in
the world is there so vast and continuous an extent of
arboreal growths. With the exception of a few miles of
roadway about the large towns, with difficulty kept free
from the rank vegetation, the whole of this wooded zone
is absolutely trackless and almost sunless. Hence the
singular habit acquired both by plants and animals to
assume the character of creepers and climbers, to struggle
upwards, as it were, in search of light and air. This
tendency, forced upon them by their surroundings, is
shared by many vegetable forms, which in other regions
do not belong to the trailing or climbing orders of plants.
The most common instances are afforded by the legumin-
ous jasmine, nettle, and similar families. There is even
a twining palm-tree, the Jacitara of the Tupi natives. On
the other hand, such trees as do not climb grow to an
unusual height, and are everywhere entangled in the
coils of huge snake-like lianas. Large trees and plants
510 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
of parasitic growth interlace their matted foliage in
inextricable confusion, some twining together like cables
composed of several strands, while others are twisted in
a thousand ways round the stems, forming gigantic folds
and meshes about the thick upper branches. Others
again trail along zigzag fashion, or else shape themselves
like the rungs of a ladder leading to the dizzy heights
above. The flowers and the fruits of the great forest-
growths are all to be sought in these upper regions of
leafy domes, where the tree-tops enjoy the free air, the
light and warmth of the tropical suns. All below is
dark, mouldy, and cavernous, the dank soil and gloomy
recesses unrelieved by bright flowers or even any green
herbage.
It should here be noted that the continuous forest
zone is not confined to the Amazonian depression, but
extends also along the sea-board, especially about the
fluvial estuaries and on the low-lying tracts between the
escarpments of the plateau and the sea-shore. Here also
the primeval woodlands formerly stretched with little
interruption for hundreds of miles. They are similar in
their main features to those of the great equatorial river
valley, and contain trees of the same or allied genera,
although the species are in many respects different.
Such especially is the case with the palms, which
relieve the more sombre masses of the woodlands in both
regions, but, while presenting the same variety of size,
stem, crown, and leaves, are represented by different
species in the two zones. Where the land is more ele-
vated and hilly, the trees are generally of less lofty
growth and farther apart. All the tribe of plants with
long, broad and glossy leaves peculiar to the swampy
inland region are here absent ; but in compensation
flowers are much more profuse, an endless variety of
BRAZIL 511
lovely ferns beautify the glades, and on the higher slopes
the Brazilian pine {Araucaria hrasiliensis) enters as a
fresh element into the woodland scenery.
Originally this forest zone clothed nearly the whole
surface of the Atlantic provinces from about 25° S. lat.
to the Amazon estuary, the chief exception being the
somewhat arid districts of Ceara and neighbourhood
north of Pernambuco, where arboreal vegetation is more
scanty. Nourished by the already described rich red
loam, and stimulated by the high temperature and copious
rainfall, this magniticent flora spread and flourished
everywhere, developing, under the influence of the secular
struggle for existence, the thousands of strange and
beautiful forms that now delight the eyes of the observ-
ant traveller. But in the mountainous southern provinces
extensive tracts of these glorious woodlands have been
cleared for the plantations and the purposes of civilised
man, and although some of these clearings may be
afterwards again abandoned to nature, the second growth
never attains the charm and luxuriance of the primeval
forest. Such woods of second growth, locally called cad-
pueira, that is, " felled timber," consist of multitudes of
low trees and saplings matted together with thorny
bushes and creepers. After some experience of these
after-growths in the province of Rio de Janeiro, Prince
Adalbert of Prussia thus speaks of the impression pro-
duced on the observer by the first sight of the true
primeval woodlands : —
" At first we gazed in wonder on the labyrinth of
tall straight trees rising like giants above the tangled
creepers and climbers which surrounded us. We looked
up to the light canopy of foliage, through which was seen
the vault of heaven as through a veil ; but we could not
account to ourselves for all we beheld. Every object
512 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
here is colossel, everything seems to belong to a primeval
world. We feel ourselves to be dwarfed by our surround-
ings, and to form part of some other world. Our astonish-
ment is increased by the great difference between the
vegetation of these forests and our own. Instead of the
flowering shrubs and fruit-trees with which we are
familiar, we here see gigantic growths, twice or thrice
their size, in all the splendour of the bloom that clothes
the whole crown of the tree with its colour.
" The chief glory of our day's ride were such trees with
magnificent large lilac or white blossoms, all contrasting
beautifully with the varied green tints of the surround-
ing foliage. After enjoying this splendid display of
colours, we turned to the deep gloom which stood re-
vealed between tlie forest giants along our path. The
flame-coloured efliorescence of a Tillandsia, formino; a
bunch a foot long and resembling a huge pine-apple or
strawberry, glanced like fire amid the dark foliage.
Again, our attention was attracted by the lovely orchids
climbing up the straight stems, or gracefully festooning
the branches, which seldom shoot out from the trunk at
a less height than 50 to 80 feet from the ground.
Among the various plants which spring from the boughs
or cling to the stems, are the mosses hanging down, not
unlike horses' tails, from the spreading branches. Myriads
of woody climbers thus suspended in the air are often
several inches round or even as thick as a man's body,
and covered with bark like the branches themselves.
But it is impossible for any one to conceive the fantastic
forms they assume, sometimes falling like straight poles
to the ground and there taking root again, sometimes
affecting the form of large hoops or rings ten to twenty
feet in diameter, or else twisted and coiled together like
so many cables."
BRAZIL 513
Hydrography — The Amazon — Estuary — Lateral Channels
and Islands
From the hydrographic standpoint Brazil belongs
entirely to the Atlantic basin, to which all the running-
waters find their way through three great drainage
areas — The Amazon -Tocantins in the north, the Parana-
Uruguay in the south, and the eastern seaboard between
Uruguay and the Amazon estuary, with a small tract
extending beyond the same estuary to French G-uiana. Of
these areas by far the most extensive is the first, even
if the Tocantins be detached from it as now forming
an independent fluvial system. With its innumerable
northern and southern affluents, some of which are them-
selves rivers almost of the first magnitude, this prodigious
waterway drains the whole of the vast province of
Amazonas, with a great part of Matto Grosso and Para,
drawing its supplies from regions extending five degrees
to the north and fifteen to the south of the equator, and
flowing from Tabatinga, where it enters Brazilian territory,
for 2400 miles eastwards to the Atlantic. Throughout
the whole of this distance, the Amazon, whose upper or
Andean section has already been described, resembles,
wherever free from islands, rather a great arm of the
sea than a fresh-water inland artery. Even above the
Madeira confluence the permanent channel is here and
there several miles wide, while lower down, as at Porto
de Moz, above the delta, it expands to a width of 40 or
50 miles. The current, which has a normal easterly
trend south of the equator, on which it converges at the
delta, is generally placid and almost sluggish, although
varying somewhat with the incline, and at a few points
attaining a velocity of from 3 to 4 miles an hour.
But at Tabatinga, where it is 2 miles wide, tlie
VOL. I 2 L
514 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Solimoes, as it is called between this point and the Eio
Negro confluence, has already reached the low level of 270
feet above the sea, so that the mean fall throughout its
Brazilian course is scarcely perceptible. In fact it is
estimated by Canstatt at not much more than one yard
in 32 miles, except during the floods, when the fluvial
channel is merged in the Rio Mar (" Sea Elver "), as it is
then called by the Brazilians. As in the Nile valley,
vast tracts are thus periodically covered with a rich
sediment, the marks of which are in many places left on
the stems of the trees to a height of 60 feet above low-
water level. The rise, which begins in January and
reaches its maximum in June, is mainly due to the
regularly recurring tropical downpours, which greatly
increase the volume, especially of the southern affluents,
and cause them to become for a part of the year
tributaries rather of a great inland sea than of a fluvial
water-course. But the effect is certainly heightened by
the great bore, or pororoca, as it is locally called, which
at the syzigies, when sun and moon act in concert, rushes
up the estuary like a huge ocean wave 16 feet high,
stemming and driving back the main stream itself, and
at certain spring-tides penetrating for hundreds of miles
inland, occasionally even as far as the Purus confluence.
At these times depths of 500 or 600 feet have been
recorded by the soundings, which, however, are for the
most part highly untrustworthy, due attention not
having always been paid to the velocity of the current.
Hence the results vary enormously, even for the same
places and seasons, and according to some more careful
recent surveys, the depth of the channel would appear
nowhere to exceed 400 feet at any time.
As elsewhere pointed out, no true delta has been
developed, and the great bulk of the water representing
BRAZIL 515
the drainage of half a continent is discharged into the
Atlantic mainly through a single channel at the equator.
This channel, which is disposed in a number of secondary
waterways by Mexiana, Caviana, and several other insular
formations, sweeps round the north side of Marajo or
Juannes, which although called an island is really a part
of the mainland, from which it is .separated towards the
west only by a few narrow passages. On the south side
Marajo is enclosed by another very broad estuary, the
so-called Rio Para, which looks like a second branch of
the Amazon, which would thus seem to bifurcate above
Marajo and form a delta enveloping that island between
its two arms. Such was, no doubt, formerly the case ; but
it is so no longer, and at present the main stream sends
very little of its contents to the ocean through the Eio
Para, with which, in ftict, it is connected only by an
intricate network of backwaters, narrow lateral passages
and other shifting channels. No doubt some of these
furos, as they are called, are navigable, but they are so
narrow that there is scarcely room for two steamers to
pass each other in them. Hence some are reserved for
the up journey to the Amazon, others for the downward
passage, and this rule of the road is carefully observed
by the local pilots, so that collisions are rare. All these
channels are merged in a continuous sheet of water during-
the floods, when the Para again assumes the aspect of a
southern arm of the Amazon. But at other times it is
now rather an independent estuary, through which the
Tocantins and a few quite secondary coast - streams
reach the Atlantic. When the Amazon extended several
hundred miles farther seaward than at present, the
Tocantins formed undoubtedly one of its great southern
affluents, but is, under the altered conditions, large
enough to be considered and treated as an independent
516 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Huvial system discharging to the sea through the Pai'a
estuary.
llowing entirely through level and densely wooded
lowlands, the Brazilian section of the Amazon presents
almost everywhere extremely flat banks stretching for
interminable distances away from the channel of the Eio
Mar. These tracts, forming a sort of debatable land
between terra jirma and the liquid domain, are scarcely
accessible except by canoes or keelless boats, being inter-
sected in all directions by stagnant backwaters, sluggish
lateral channels or shallow lagoons, all of which are
continually shifting their beds, enlarging or contracting
their margins with every recurrent inundation. In some
places the lateral ixtranamerims ("little rivers"), as they
are locally called, extend for hundreds of miles generally
parallel with the main stream. It is thus possible to
ascend the valley of the Amazon in a canoe for vast
distances, and even pass from tributary to tributary
through the dense forests without ever entering the
main river. But for regular navigation these byways are
useless, owing to the fluctuations to which they are
subject after the periodical floods.
Similar fluctuations extend to the great artery itself,
where, however, it is not the liquid masses but the
insular formations that are suljject to incessant change.
Such formations occur everywhere, but are everywhere
of variable character — some mere shoals and banks flush
with the surface and swept away by the next freshet ;
some permanent land rising well aboA'e the normal water-
level, and for the most part densely wooded ; others again
dangerous floating masses, torn from the river banks and
drifting with the stream. Many of the caa-apoam, as
the true islands are called, in contradistinction to the
'prayas and coraes, that is, the evanescent sand-banks
BRAZIL
17
form familiar landmarks 5 or 6 miles long, generally
encircled by a mangrove fringe, and clothed with the
montrichardia and other plants of arborescent habit.
Amongst the largest of these are the llJia de Paricatuha,
and the Ilha de Tupinamharanas, at the Madeira conflu-
ence, the latter so named from a warlike band of Tupis
who, like many other kindred tribes, withdrew from the
Portuguese invaders of the seaboard, and here took refuge
about the year 1560. This large island, or rather
riverine tract, is formed by the Furo Uraria, a narrow
channel branching off from the right bank of the
Lower Madeira and joining the main stream about
200 miles lower down.
The Amazonian Affluents
After entering Brazilian territory, the Amazon con-
tinues to be joined on both banks by numerous affluents,
many of which equal or surpass the largest European
rivers in length and volume. These affluents are classed
by the natives in two categories — the " Blackwaters " and
the " Whitewaters " — according to the apparent colour of
their liquid contents. Streams flowing through alluvial
tracts, where the loose friable soil is continually washed
away, are " white " because of the usually light shade of
their turbid water, while those confined in rocky beds are
" black," although really much clearer than the others.
The Amazon itself belongs, as might be expected, to the
white class, which are said to be far less malarious
than the black, and these in their turn more exempt
from the mosquito plague. Of both there are altogether
over 200, of which about 100 are navigable, while 18
are described as rivers of the first rank, and 6 longer
and more copious than the Ehine. Within the Brazilian
518
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGllAPHY AND TRAVEL
frontier there are thus altogether
navigable waters thus distributed : —
Main stream .....
Tributaries on both banks
Lakes and Lagoons ....
27,000 miles of
2,-300 miles
20,700 „
4,000 „
Subjoined are some of the more important affluents on
both banks, taken in the direction from west to east : —
Southern Affluents
Length,
miles.
Basin,
sq. miles.
Mean Discharge,
cub. ft. per second.
Navigable
Course,
miles.
Javary
600
35,000
50,000
550
Jutahy
400
12,000
18,000
380
Jurua
1300
92,000
90,000
1000
Purus
2230
148,000
140,000
1560
Madeira
3000
495,000
570,000
1000
Tapajos
1200
165,000
184,000
870
Xingu
1300
150,000
140,000
620
Northern Afflue>
■ts
Iga (Putumayo)
1000
45,000
75,000
650
Japura
1700
120,000
178,000
930
Negro
900
275,000
385,000
480
Trombetas .
350
1750
47,000
54,000
360,000
320
Tocantins .
350,000
500
Amazon from "j
Tabatinga to [
2300
2,230,000
4,250,000
2300
Estuary
The Jurua, Purus, and Madeira
Beyond the Javary, already referred to as the
frontier river towards Peru, follow the Jutahy, the
Jurua, the Teffe, and the Purus, all of which are strictly
lowland streams lying almost entirely within Brazilian
territory, and winding in somewhat sluggish channels in
a parallel north-easterly direction across the bed of the
old Amazonian sea. Hence all are free from rapids and
BRAZIL 519
other obstructions, and as they lie well within the zone
of heavy rains, are copious waterways navigable nearly
to their sources. Although ranking in Brazil only as a
third-rate river, the Jurua was ascended for over 1120
miles by Chandless to a point where it was still 30 feet
deep and 400 feet wide. Still longer and more copious
is the Purus, which is accessible to steamers for 800 miles,
was actually ascended by Serafini 1300 miles in boats,
and has a total length of 1850 miles. There are many
head-streams, some, such as the Aquiry, Pauyarim, and
Tapana, themselves large and navigable rivers ramifying
widely over the wooded Amazonian plains, which super-
abound in all kinds of valuable forest products.
Beyond these tranquil and almost stagnant waterways
follows the impetuous Madeira, largest of all the southern
affluents, which is formed by the junction of the Itenez or
Guapor<^, with the Bolivian Mamore above the Great
Falls, as described in a previous chapter. The Guapore,
which for the Brazilians is the upper course of the
Madeira, and in any case is much wider if not more
copious than the Mamore, almost intermingles its waters
with those of the Paraguay at the low narrow divide
between the two basins near the town of Matto Grosso.
After collecting the surface drainage of the southern
slopes of the Cordilheira Geral, it converges with the
Mamore in a single stream, here already half a mile wide,
some distance above the junction of the Beni on the left
bank. Before reaching this junction the Madeira already
enters the rocky gorges of the projecting spurs of the
Cordelheira through which it has to cut its way down to
the Amazonian plains.
Thus is developed the long series of falls and rapids,
which have a total length of over 200 miles, as appears
from the plans of the railway which has been projected
520 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
to turn these insuperable obstructions to the navigation,
and is 180 miles long, although avoiding some of the
sharper fluvial windings. Throughout this section the
stream is everywhere swift and dangerous, with many
back currents, whirlpools, and swirling waters, even
between the actual falls themselves. Between the Great
and Little Guajara Falls above the Beni confluence, and
the Santo Antonio rapids where the river escapes from
its rocky fetters to the plains, as many as twenty of the
more formidable barriers have been enumerated, some
bearing such expressive names as Misericordia and
Galderao do Inferno, i.e. the " Cauldron of Hell." Those
specially known as the Madeira Falls are not the most
imposing; but they stand just under 10° S. lat., w^here
the river quits Bolivian territory and becomes entirely a
Brazilian watercourse, and, according to some authorities,
here properly takes the name of Madeira, that is, the
"Driftwood Eiver." It was so named in 1725 "by its
first explorer, Palheta, who noticed large quantities of
snags and other driftwood floating down with the stream.
The native name, current before that time, was Cayari,
the " White Eiver."
At the station of Santo Antonio, a little below the
rapids of like name, where all navigation properly so
called is arrested, the Madeira is a noble river about
1000 yards wide, and at this distance of some 1600
miles from the Para estuary, is accessible to ocean-
going steamers for eight or nine months in tlie year.
Even in the dry season from August to October, when
there is a total fall of nearly if not quite 50 feet below
the highest flood- waters, steamers and other craft drawing
3 or 4 feet ascend right up to the foot of the rapids,
though care has to be taken at the Tamandoa sand-bank
above the confluence of the Bio Machado on the right
BRAZIL 521
side. At low water this sand-bank extends for many
miles, and is frequented by prodigious numbers of turtles
for the purpose of laying their eggs. " On one occasion,
passing this bank in a canoe, I saw an extraordinary
sight. For miles, as far as the eye could reach down the
river, were continuous rows of turtle at the water's edge ;
the rows being eight or ten deep, many thousands must
have been collected together." ^
The Tapajos, Xingu, and Tocantins
Between the Madeira and the Tocantins the Amazon
is joined by two other great tributaries — the Tapajos
and the Xingu — both of which draw their farthest
supplies from the northern slopes of the central divide
between the Amazon and Paraguay basins, and, after a
nearly parallel northerly course of many hundred miles
through Matto Grosso and Para, reach the right bank
of the main stream below the Obidos narrows. The
crest of the divide where these Amazonian streams take
their rise has a mean altitude of not more than 1600 or
1700 feet, although dominated here and there by a few
isolated peaks from 2000 to 3000 feet high. Seen from
the south, where it falls in steep escarpments abruptly
down to the Paraguay basin, it presents the aspect of a
long mountain range of moderate elevation. But its
true character is rather that of a plateau with a somewhat
gentle incline in the direction of the north, where it
gradually merges in the Amazonian plains.
The true mountain range, still represented in a
fragmentary way by the isolated peaks, has mostly dis-
appeared by weathering and the erosion of the running
waters, wliich have ravined the plateau itself, and has
^ Mathews, ojj. cit. p. 21.
5 22 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
exposed the very old crystalline rocks — gneiss, porphyries,
granites, and quartzites — which form the main con-
stituent elements of the whole region. Thus the Tapajos,
which is formed by the junction of the Arinos, Juruena,
and several other head-streams, all rising on the northern
slope of the Campos or Cordilheira dos Parexis, develops,
like the Madeira, a long series of falls and rapids about
its middle course, where it cuts its way down to the
plains. Some of these cataracts, such as that do Inferno,
bear even similar names, and are followed 300 miles
farther on by the Salto Augusto, which arrests all naviga-
tion even at high water. Beyond these falls the Tapajos
is accessible to large vessels for the rest of its course
of over 200 miles through the Amazonian woodlands
to its junction with the main stream near Santarem.
Here is formed the large flooded depression of Zal'e
Villaf ranca or Campinas, which communicates through
several channels both with the Amazon and the right
bank of the Tapajos.
Like the Tapajos,^ the Xingu (Shingu) ^ is obstructed
by numerous reefs and rapids, some of which are im-
passable even by canoes. It enters the main stream
through a very broad, island-studded mouth, at the head
of the Amazon estuary, with which its lower reaches are
completely merged during the floods. The Xingu flows
mostly through unsettled wooded districts, which are
still held by fierce and hostile wild tribes ; hence its
basin was little known before the explorations of Von
den Steinen in 1884-87.
Beyond the Xingu follows the now semi-independent
basin of the Tocantins, which comprises nearly the whole
of Goyaz, the western parts of Matto Grosso, and a
^ In roi-tuguese x — sli, as in shin; j = y ; hence Tapa.jos=Tapayos ;
Xingd = Shingu.
BRAZIL 523
considerable section of East Para, with a drainage area
of probably not less than 350,000 square miles. Its
lower course is formed by the junction about 6' S. lat. of
two great branches, themselves formed by numerous head-
streams, some of which have their sources on the slopes
of the Serra de Santa Martha, some fourteen degrees
farther south, where they almost intermingle their waters
with those of the Upper Parana and S. Francisco affluents.
Of the two main upper branches the Araguaya from the
west appears to be the more copious, as it certainly is
the longer, although the name of the Tocantins is
retained by the eastern branch because the Portuguese
pioneers came first upon this great waterway. In
colonial times all private exploration of the interior was
prohibited under the severest penalties, and in the
eighteenth century Tavares Lisbao narrowly escaped with
his life for having descended the Tocantins all the way
to Para. This eastern branch is formed by the junction
of the Paranatinga and Maranhao head-streams, the
former descending from the Paranau and Tabatinga
ranges, the latter from the little Lake Formosa in the
Pireneos transverse ridge. Below the confluence the
Tocantins skirts the eastern foot of the Cordilheira
Grande in a northerly direction to its junction with the
Araguaya from the Goyaz uplands. In this section of
its course the Tocantins is obstructed by several rocky
barriers caused by the projecting spurs of the Cordilheira,
and even below the Araguaya confluence it has to sur-
mount the CacJioeira Grande (" Great Palls "), which
arrests all shipping within 130 miles of the estuary,
so that, notwithstanding its vast extent and a discharge
of about 360,000 cubic feet per second, this great fluvial
system is almost useless for navigation. To this fact
is largely due the backwaixl state of the vast province
524 COMPENDIUM OF CxEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
of Goyaz, which has no direct access to the sea, although
the Araguaya branch, forming its boundary towards
Matto Grosso and Para, is navigable for long stretches
at least in its middle course. After receiving several
copious streams on both its banks the Araguaya ramifies
into two great arms, which again meet 250 miles lower
down. Thus is formed the great island of Bananal, that
is, the " Banana Grove," a rich alluvial tract about 8000
square miles in extent, rising well above the highest
floods and enclosing the Lagoa Grande, a large sheet of
water communicating with the eastern arm. Below
Bananal the Araguaya is so beset by reefs and rapids,
and even falls, that in this section of its course it is
even less navigable than the Tocantins.
The Eio Negro and other Northern AflBuents
From the north the Amazon also receives many con-
tributions, especially in the Solimoes section, where it is
joined by the already described Putumayo {lea), the
Japura and the Negro, this last by far the greatest of all
its affluents. The Japura {Hyapiira), rising with many
head-streams on the Colombian uplands, has at first a
tumultuous course, rushing through deep rocky gorges
and over a long series of rapids to the great falls, below
the Araracoara reefs, where it is precipitated over a
magnificent cascade fully 100 feet high. In its sluggish
lower course it develops a labyrinthine system of creeks,
lagoons, backwaters, and lateral channels, which com-
municate with the main stream at several points both
above and below the true confluence opposite Teffe.
During the floods the whole of this low-lying region,
some 40,000 square miles in extent, resumes the aspect
of the old Amazonian sea all the way to the Lower Negro
BRAZIL 525
basin. Below the point where it is connected by the
Cassiquiare with the Orinoco system the Negro is joined
on its right bank by the JJawpes {Ucayaris), which
descends through many falls and rapids from the
Colombian highlands, and is by many geographers re-
garded as the true upper course of the Negro. Below
the confluence, by which its volume is more than doubled,
the Negro trends eastwards at first over numerous
cataracts and other rocky barriers, and then with a more
placid current to its junction with the Tao Branco
(" White Eiver ") from the north. Here the contrast
is very marked between the dark though limpid waters
of the Negro and the lighter stream of the Branco
descending from the argillaceous plains on the British
Guiana frontier. For some distance below the confluence
the two rivers flow side by side before mingling their
waters, which enter the Amazon at Manaos through a
broad channel like a great inland estuary.
The Barra do Rio Negro, as Manaos was formerly
called, has reference to a sort of " bar " caused at the
confluence by a return current setting from the Amazon
up its great affluent. Here the Negro is certainly over
100 feet deep at low water, and rises about 40 feet high
during the floods. But throughout its lower course it is
greatly obstructed by shoals and quicksands, so that
steamers drawing no more than 4 or 5 feet have
sometimes to stop running, though they are generally
able to ascend 450 miles to the head of the navigation
at Santa Izabel, near the last rapid below the Uaupes
junction.
Beyond the Eio Negro the Amazonian basin is greatly
contracted by the Sierra Acarai and its eastern exten-
sions, which form the divide towards the waters flowing;
through the Guianas north to the Atlantic. Hence
526 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
throughout the rest of its course to the estuary the
Amazon is joined on its left bank only by relatively
small affluents, which are in no way comparable with
the Tapajos and the other great tributaries on the
opposite side. Amongst the more important, if not the
largest, is the Tromldas, which drains a considerable
extent of the northern savannah, and reaches the main
stream just above the Obidos narrows, where it is con-
fined to a channel scarcely a mile wide, but with a depth
of perhaps 250 feet and a velocity of over 4 miles an
hour. A curious feature of these north-eastern affluents
is their tendency to develop broad lakes or lagoons before
reaching the main stream. These flooded depressions —
Saraca on the Uruba; Jamunda above and Surubiu
below the Trombetas and many others — appear to be
formed not by the rivers themselves, but by the large
quantities of the sedimentary matter deposited by the
Amazon about their mouths, thus stemming the current
and causing it to expand into shallow reservoirs along
their lower course.
The S. Francisco and other Coast Streams
Of the numerous rivers which reach the Atlantic in
independent channels between the Amazon estuary and
Uruguay, incomparably the largest is the S. Francisco,
which has its farthest sources near those of some of the
Parana head-streams on the slopes of the Serra da
Canastra in the south of Minas Geraes, over 2000 feet
above sea-level. In its upper course it is a boisterous
upland stream, descending througli a succession of rapids,
here called escadinhas (" steps "), down to its juction on
the right with the Eio das Velhas from the Queluz
heights near Itacolumi. Below this point, still 1760
BRAZIL 527
feet above the sea, the S, Francisco at once becomes
navigable for large craft, flowing for hundreds of miles
in a broad deep channel through Minas Geraes to the
confluence of the Rio Grande, largest of all its numerous
affluents. Here is presented another of those instances
of a double incline, which are of more frequent occurrence
in South America than elsewhere. The Rio Prcto, a
chief branch of the Eio Grande, is joined in its upper
valley by the Rio Sa2M0 flowing from a lacustrine basin,
which communicates on the opposite slope through
another emissary — the Rio do tiomno — with the right
bank of the Tocantins above the Araguaya confluence.
The Somno itself is a considerable stream 250 to 400
feet wide, and from 5 to 20 feet deep. "The water is
beautifully clear and transparent, and the scenery of the
banks is inexpressibly charming. In many places they
rise up into lofty, many coloured cliffs of sandstone,
topped with forest, and veiled with trailing, flowering
vines. In other places the campos extends to ruddy
banks and white sandy shores, in long slopes of green-
sward. In the shadowed pools of water at the bends,
the lovely banks are mirrored as in a looking-glass." ^
Thus is presented the phenomenon of a continuous
natural waterway between the S. Francisco and the
Amazon basins, similar to the already described con-
nections between the Amazon, the Orinoco, and the
Paraguay.
But these connections occur in flat, low lying districts,
which were formerly flooded by the Amazonian sea,
whereas tlie waterway between the S. Francisco and the
Tocantins traverses an upland tract where most maps show
a continuous mountain range — the Serra da Tahatinga
— completely separating the two basins. This range,
1 Wells, vol. i. p. 193.
528 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
however, which also takes other fanciful names, has no
existence, and Mr. Wells, who first made the through
journey by water, tells us that the divide is nothing
but " a wide sterile sandy plateau, thinly covered with
small scrub and tufts of wiry grass. A traveller can
traverse it in a canoe from Barra do Eio Grande, on the
S. Francisco, to the mouth of the Rio Somno, on the
Tocantins. This high plateau, known as the Chapada
de Mangabeira, extends to 10° S. lat. where it joins a
similar high flat plateau that forms a horse-shoe in its
course, and constitutes the watershed of the rivers of
north-east Brazil" (vol. ii. p. 361). On a properly con-
structed physical map the whole of this region would
appear as an island enclosed eastwards by the Atlantic
and landwards by the Amazon, the Tocantins, the Somno,
Eio Grande, and Lower S. Francisco.
Beyond the Rio Grande confluence the S. Francisco
bends round from north to north-east and east, here
flowinw between Bahia and Pernambuco, and farther on
between Sergipe and Alagoas, to the Atlantic, which it
enters through two branches, both obstructed by bars
with not more than 9 or 10 feet at low water. But
about 160 miles higher up the navigation of the S.
Francisco itself is completely arrested by the tremendous
Paulo Affonso Falls, the " Niagara of Brazil." Here the
stream, after winding in a broad channel through quite
an archipelago of islands, is suddenly contracted to a
narrow bed scarcely 60 feet wide, and precipitated over
a rocky ledge to a yawning chasm nearly 300 feet below.
In the dry season, when the discharge is estimated at
this point at 35,000 cubic feet per second, the current
is broken by several projecting rocks, but is merged in a
single body of water during the floods, when its volume
rises to probably over 150,000 cubic feet per second.
BRAZIL 529
Even below the great tails several other obstructions
have to be overcome, so that the S. Francisco, which has
a total length of 1800 miles with a drainage area of
252,000 square miles, is accessible to sea-going vessels
only for 135 miles from its mouth. But between the
Paulo Affonso Falls and the Kio das Velhas junction
there is a clear navigable stretch of about 1000 miles,
and nearly 4400 miles including the affluents, many of
which can be ascended by light craft for some distance
above their confluences.
North of the S. Francisco the seaboard is traversed
by several coast-streams, of which the most important
is the Parahiba do Norte, which rises with several
head-streams on the northern slopes of the Serra da
Barhorema, and flows in a north-easterly direction for
930 miles between the States of Maranhao and Piauhy
to the sea, which it enters through a large delta project-
ing considerably beyond the normal coast-line. Not-
withstanding its great length and a catchment basin
nearly 140,000 square miles in extent, the "Bad
River," as its name is said to mean, is so shallow and
beset by shoals and reefs as to be scarcely navigable for
vessels drawing over 5 or 6 feet of water.
South of the S. Francisco the chief arteries are the
Pardo and JequitinJionha, which converge in a common
delta a little north of Porto Seguro ; the Bio Dace, which
descends from the Serra das Vertentes, and after describ-
ing a great bend from north to east pierces the Serra dos
Aimores on its course to the sea above Santa Cruz ; the
Parahiba do Sul, which rises on the inner slope of the
Serra do Mar, and after flowing some distance to the
south, as if to join the Upper Parana, trends round to
the north-east, and maintains this direction for the rest
of its course through the State of Eio de Janeiro to the
VOL. I 2 M
530 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY Ax\D TRAVEL
coast above Cape S. Thome ; lastly, the Pdo Jacuhy, which,
after collecting the drainage of a great part of the State
of Eio Grande do Sul, enters the Lagoa dos Patos at
Porto Alegre.
This extensive coast lagoon appears to take its name
not from the patos (" ducks ") by which it is frequented,
but from the now extinct Patos Indians, who formerly
occupied its shores. It is by far the largest of the chain
of similar marine formations which fringe the Atlantic
seaboard all the way from Santa Catharina to Uruguay,
and are due partly to the action of the waves and cur-
rents washing up the sands, and partly also perhaps to
the upheaval of the outer coast-line thus created. Some
of the lagoons are already completely closed, and their
waters have become brackish or even fresh, while others
still communicate with the sea through creeks or shift-
ing channels often closed in the dry season. The Lagoa
dos Patos, which has an area of between 3000 and 4000
square miles, sends its overflow to the Atlantic through
the permanent outlet of the Bio Grande, just below the
point where it receives the inflow of the Lagoa Mirim
on the Uruguay frontier (see p. 419).
The Jaguarao frontier river, as well as the Upper
Parana and Paraguay basins lying within Brazilian
territory, have been described in previous chapters.
CHAPTEE XV
BPiAZiL — {continued)
Climate — Flora — Fauna — Inhabitants — The Aborigines — The Tapuya,
Tupi-Guarani, Carib, and Arawak I'aniilies— The Brazilian Negroes —
The Europeans — Topography — Natural Resources — Mining Industry
• — Agricultural Prospects — Coffee Culture — Stock - Breeding — Forest
Produce — Railway Enterprise — Trade — Government— Education —
Finance — Armaments.
Climate
In the north Brazil extends at one or two points nearly
five degrees beyond the equator, and in the south about
ten beyond the Tropic of Capricorn. But here it con-
tracts to very narrow limits, so that with the exception
of the southern section of Parana, Eio Grande do Sul,
and Santa Catharina, nearly the whole region is com-
prised within the south torrid zone. As there are,
moreover, nowhere any alpine heights or snowy moun-
tains, but only moderately elevated tablelands intersected
by low ranges or ridges, the climate is on tlie whole
essentially tropical, modified on the seaboard by marine
infiuences and in parts of the interior by special local
conditions. The modifications are, however, greater than
might be supposed, as may be seen from the remarkable
deflections of the isothermal lines on recent climato-
loffical charts.
532
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Three zones have in fact been distinguished — a
strictly tropical, comprising the states of Pernambuco,
Parahiba, Kio Grande do Norte, Ceara, Piauhy, Maranhao,
Para, Amazonas, and parts of Goyaz and Matto Grosso,
say, 2,600,000 square miles; a warm or sub-tropical,
including the northern section of Parana, E,io de Janeiro,
Santa Catharina, Eio Grande do Sul, and the greater part
of S. Paulo, with some of the high grounds in Minas
Geraes, Goyaz, and Matto Grosso, altogether about
600,000 square miles ; lastly, a temperate zone of perhaps
100,000 square miles in various parts of the southern
States. But even here, as well as on the highest sum-
mits, snow and ice are rare and passing phenomena,
although 30,000 head of cattle perished of cold in
the Lages district of Eio Grande do Sul during the
exceptionally severe winter of 1859. Mild frosts are
most frequent on Itatiaya, and in the uplands of South
Minas Geraes the glass stands for about a week at 6° or
7° Fahr. below freezing-point. The foregoing picture is
supported by the subjoined returns of the mean annual
temperature from various parts of Brazil for the year
1889-90:—
state.
Town or District.
Maranliao .
. Santa Luz
Para .
. Para
Ceara
Fortaleza
? ,
. Quixeramobim
Matto Grosso
. Cuyaba .
Piauhy
Amarante
Pernambuco
. Recife
Espirito Santo
. Colonia Izabel
J J
Victoria
,,
. S. Bento das Lages
Bahia
, Bahia
Minas Geraes .
Queluz .
J)
. Ribeiro Preto .
R. de Janeiro .
iSova Friburgo
Mean
Temp
81°
Fahr.
79°
82°
85°
79°
80°
79°
74°
77°
76°
79°
68°
63°
BKAZIL
533
state.
R. de Janeiro
S. Paulo .
Pai'ana
Sta. Catliarina
Parana
R. Gr. do Sul
Town or District
R. de Janeiro
Santa Cruz
Casa Branca
Cascata .
S. Paulo
Curitiba .
Blumenau
S. Antonio da
Nova Petropol
Santa Cruz
Passo Fundo
Taquary .
R. Gr. do Sul
Palmeira
Mean Temp.
74° Fahr.
70° „
74° „
64° „
62° „
64° „
70° „
64° „
66° ,,
66° „
63° ,,
65° ,,
66° ,,
Even the highest of these records do not at first
sight seem excessive, and in England, a pre-eminently
temperate region, the thermometer occasionally registers
80° or more in the shade. But what is here exceptional
is normal in most parts of Brazil, where it is the per-
sistence of high temperatures throughout the year, and
the absence of spring and autumn transitional periods,
that make the heats so oppressive and exhausting.
Little relief is obtained even at night, except on the
Amazon, parts of the seaboard and the extreme south,
where there is often a range of as much as 20° within
the twenty-four houi's and from season to season. The four
seasons, however, are confined to the Almanac, and the
people themselves recognise only a dry and a wet period,
the latter lasting generally for two or three months — in
the south from October to December, in Pernambuco
from April to June, in Rio de Janeiro formerly from
November to March, but since the disappearance of
the forests at no fixed time. In the interior also, and
especially in the Amazonian lands, it rains through-
out the year, although even here the distinctly wet
season is, as a rule, limited to the period from December
to May. This great excess of moisture, which renders
534 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
the heats still more unbearable, is due to the Atlantic
trade-winds, which prevail for a great part of the year,
and are nowhere intercepted by great mountain barriers.
But, strange to say, what are chiefly dreaded, especi-
ally in Ceara and neighbouring lands, are not the rains
but the droughts, such as that which lasted for four years
at the close of the eighteenth century, and is not yet
forgotten. All the live-stock perished, whole districts
were depopulated, and the survivors were reduced to
the verge of starvation. Such protracted droughts are
always possible, and at such times the vegetation itself
gets L)urnt up, the springs and streams cease to flow, and
the parched soil gapes with great cracks and fissures.
On the other hand, the tropical downpours last
at times for weeks together, and are accompanied by
tremendous thunder-storms and hurricanes, as in 1817,
when the ships broke from their moorings and hundreds
of lives were lost at Eio de Janeiro. From the few
systematic observations that have been taken the annual
rainfall rises from 8 or 10 inches on some parts of
the seaboard to 500 or 600 inches and even upwards in
some parts of the Amazonian depression. On the coast,
between Cape Orange and Eio G-rande, the north-east
winds prevail from September to March, when they are
succeeded by the south-east trades for the rest of the year.
But between Cape S. Eoque and the Amazon estuary
the marine breezes set steadily from the south-south-
east throughout the year, though they are most felt from
October to March. Like the pamperos from the south-
west, they blow at times with great violence, often strew-
ing the coast with wreckage, but also aiding the naviga-
tion of the interior, where sailing-vessels easily ascend
the Amazon, driving before the wind right up to the
Peruvian frontier.
BRAZIL 535
All things considered, the southern provinces are the
most suited for European settlement. The Minas Geraes
uplands, about the head-waters of the S. Francisco, are also
distinctly healthy, and all travellers in these districts
hear of extraordinary cases of longevity. Mr. H. C.
Dent, amongst others, was told that " there never was
any illness, and the people are ver}^ long-lived, often
attaining a hundred years of age. One old woman living
near is a hundred and twenty, her husband died many
years ago at nearly a hundred ; I was shown som& time
later the portrait of an old negress who lives at Pitaguay,
named Joanna, who is 127 years old and still does every-
thing for herself."^ South Goyaz, still farther inland,
enjoys a similar reputation, and this is one reason why
it has been proposed to remove the seat of government
from Eio de Janeiro, in the yellow fever coast zone, to
the Formosa district in tliat province. But yellow fever
is largely a question of sanitation, and a crowded city
like Eio might find itself equally exposed to the plague
even on the breezy Goyaz uplands. Formerly the whole
of the interior, and especially the plateaux, were supposed
to be safe from its attacks. But this delusion was dis-
pelled by its appearance at Manaos in 1856, and by
several outbreaks since 1890 at Cantagallo, Campinas,
and other inland towns. Its range, however, is said
to be limited vertically to about 2500 feet, no known
cases having yet occurred on the slopes above that
altitude.
Other fevers are endemic in many parts of the
interior, and several varieties of ague are prevalent along
the periodically flooded level banks of the S. Francisco
below the Velhas confluence. But compared with the
whole region, these fever-stricken districts are of quite
^ A Year in Brazil, pp. 57, 58.
536 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
limited extent, although to them Brazil mainly owes its
undeserved reputation of being an insalubrious land.
Even the Amazon, flowing almost on the equator, is
classed as a " white river," and is in any case somewhat
immune from malaria, being in this respect almost
comparable to some of the healthy woodlands of the
Bolivian yungas. It is noteworthy that wherever the
surface is disturbed by railway cuttings and similar
works, the operations are usually followed by an out-
burst of some form of malarious fever. Such was the
case when the City Improvements Company took Rio in
hand in 1863-68.
But the hope that the drainage works then carried
out would put an end to the constant visitations of
yellow fever were doomed to disappointment. Rio still
remains, next to Santos, the chief hot-bed of the pest along
the whole seaboard. It attacks foreigners, such as ships'
crews and immigrants, by preference, and Italians were
the chief victims during the epidemics of 1891-92. It
rages especially in December and January, and generally
subsides with the first appearance of cold in May or June,
hence is essentially a tropical disease, like African fever,
but of a different character; Brazilian negroes, proof
against yellow fever, are as subject as Europeans to the
African varieties, and Sudanese negroes are as liable as
the white immigrants to the attacks of the American
" yellow jack."
N'ext to this disorder the most prevalent is perhaps
rheumatism, which is said to be in Brazil, as in so many
other countries, on the increase. Scrofula and other
skin diseases are widespread, but would appear to be
mainly confined to the negro and mulatto classes,
amongst whom they often assume some very repulsive
forms. The puru-puru variety, however, is peculiar to
BRAZIL 537
the Amazonian aborigines, amongst whom small-pox also
at times makes frightful ravages.
Flora
Despite much diversity of form, due to the varying
conditions of soil, climate, and altitude, the exuberant
Brazilian vegetable world presents almost everywhere a
certain uniform south tropical aspect. So vast, however,
is this botanical field that, even after the protracted
researches af Humboldt, Bonpland, De CandoUe, Martins,
Waterton, Spruce, Bates, Wallace, and other eminent
naturalists, the systematic study of the Brazilian flora is
still far from exhausted. Extensive districts teeming
with plant life have never yet been visited, and although
as many as 22,000 endemic species have already been
described, no one can say how much there still remains
to be discovered. In this boundless botanical zone the
striking features are the primeval woodlands, which still
cover the Amazonian plains and large tracts of the sea-
board, and the general aspect of which has already been
described. A marked peculiarity is the strange absence of
conifers, the chief exception being the Araucaria hrasili-
ensis, and even this is mainly confined to the slopes of
the serras between 18^ and 30° S. lat. It is one of the
few plants which, like the wax-palm and mate, are of
sociable habits, forming, especially in the east, extensive
thickets of uniform and exclusive character.
Elsewhere the woodlands are peopled by an endless
diversity of forms, none of which in the struggle for
existence is able to acquire a marked predominance over
its rivals ; hence the prodigious variety of species which
distinguishes this botanical zone beyond all others.
Thus is presented the most violent contrast between the
538 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
rich arboreal and parasitic vegetation of the marshy
Aniazonian lowlands, and the above described monotonous,
grassy, and scrubby growtlis of the somewhat arid campos
region. But it has been calculated that the wooded
lowlands comprise only about one-third, and the far less
productive campos districts of the central uplands half as
much again of the whole land, and it is this consideration
that has to be borne in mind when reading the current
glowing accounts of the " unlimited resources of the
Brazilian republic." Under the term " campos," however,
are comprised many tracts which differ considerably in
their main features, and are locally known Ijy distinctive
names, which, being little understood elsew^iere, have
tended to create the confused and erroneous impressions
still prevalent regarding the true character of the greater
part of this region. Hence some of those in more general
use are here subjoined and defined : —
Campos geraes, "general campos," the interminable level or slightly
rolling tracts under short coarse herbage, where the nionotonoiis
landscape is seldom relieved by any conspicuous object.
Campos ahertos 1 , ., ,
r, J (described at p. 502.
Campos cerraaos J ^
Campos veros, "true campos," grassy, treeless and waterless plateaux.
Campos agrestes, " rough campos," where coarse tufty herbage of grayish
colour prevails.
Campos mimosas, "tender campos," under soft, fresh, bright green
pasturage, suitable for cattle-runs.
Taboleiras, " platters," very flat and di'y herbaceous plains.
Cliapadas, " high ground," applied vaguely to elevated plateaux, low
ridges or serras traversing the campos.
Sertoes, " backwoods," a term of universal use, not everywhere suggestive
of woodlands, but rather of waste lands of any kind — a wilderness ;
applied in a general way both to the taboleiras and the chapadas.
The wide use of tliis word points at the really burren or unproductive
character of a great part of the central uplands.
Capoes, "thickets," patches of low growth, especially palms, in the
more humid parts of the grassy campos, lending variety and charm to
the landscape.
BRAZIL 539
Carrascos, " scrub," brushwood.
Serradoes, "high woods," stunted wooded tracts on the drj', niii)ro-
ductive uplands.
Charneca, "heath," applied to scrubby open tracts forming a transition
from the caiTascos to the sertoes.
Catingas ~> extensive open woodlands of small growth and with much
Mato daro /underwood, affording cover to all kinds of animals.
Oapoeira, "after-growths," the jungle that springs up with surpris-
ing rapidit}' in the abandoned clearings of the primeval forest, where
are always found some species different from those uprooted.
In the virgin forests as many as 120 species have
already been discovered, which are of distinct economic
value — alimentary, medicinal, rubber -yielding, useful
for building, cabinet-work, weaving, netting, plait-
ing, and other practical purposes. In this respect no
land can compare with Brazil, just as no other tree in the
whole world can compare with the Brazilian wax-palm
(Co]:iernici(' cerifera), the carnahuha of the natives. This
marvellous tree, which has a wide range in the north-
eastern States, seems to concentrate in itself half of the
properties of the vegetable kingdom. " It resists intense
droughts, and is always green and vigorous. Its roots
produce the same medicinal effects as sarsaparilla ; its
stem affords strong, light fibres, which acquire a beautiful
lustre, and serves also for joists and other building-
materials. From parts of the tree wine and vinegar are
made ; it yields also a saccharine substance, as well as a
starch resembling sago. Its fruit is used for feeding
cattle ; the pulp has an agreeable taste, and the nut is
sometimes used as a substitute for coffee. Of the wood
of the stem musical instruments, water-tubes, and pumps
are made ; the pith is an excellent substitute for cork ;
from the stem a white liquid similar to the milk of the
coconut, and a flour resembling maizena may be extracted.
Of the straw, hats, baskets, brooms, and mats are made ;
salt is extracted from it, and an alkali used in the manu-
540 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
facture of soap ; but the most valuable product is the
wax obtained from its leaves."^
Amongst the highly oleaginous plants growing wild
are the coconut palm ; Attalea com'pta, whose oil surpasses
that of the olive ; Gocos gommosa ; Cocos coronata ; Copa-
Iiiba; Bicinus communis ; Sapucainha, jielding a, highlj-
prized odoriferous oil ; Carapa guianensis, whose olea-
ginous seeds are the Andiroba of commerce. Even more
important is the gummiferous and resinous family,
including the Seringeira (Siphonia elastica), foremost of
the rubber-yielding plants ; the Manga heira {Hancornia
speciosa) ; Agoniada (Flumeria laTicifolia) and Jatoha
{JSymencea courhar%l),ixQim. which is extracted copal varnish.
Chief of the dyewoods are the Fau Brazil {Caesalpinia
echinata), of historic interest (see p. 52); dragon's blood
(Croton erythrina) ; Carajuru {Bignonia chica) ; Anil
(Indigofera and Cissus Tinctoria) ; tagatiba {Madura
affinis) ; red mangrove {Bhizophora mangle) ; various
kinds of indigo and urucu {Bixa orellana), and Genipa
americana, from the berries of which the natives obtain
the blue-black dye used in tattooing. Highly fragrant
aromatic essences are extracted from many plants, such
as Baunilha {Vanilla), which was found by Von den
Steinen to range far into Matto Grosso about the head-
waters of the Xingu. The hundreds of indigenous, medi-
cinal, aromatic, and alimentary plants, such as sarsaparilla,
ipecacuanha, sapucaya, Brazil or Para nuts, guava,
passion-flower fruit, cashu, cassava, maiz, tobacco, cacao,
have been increased by cinnamon from Ceylon, nutmeg
and other spices from the Moluccas, pepper from
Jamacia, and bananas from Africa. Of this valuable
plant there are in Brazil two species, Musa paradisiaca
and Mtisa sapientium, the latter still often called S.
1 T. L. Thompson, The Forum, March 1898.
BRAZIL 541
Thome banana, because introduced from that West African
island in the sixteenth century. But of all such immi-
grants the most valuable are the sugar-cane and the
coffee shrub, which have here found congenial homes,
and are now amongst the chief sources of the national
wealth.
A curiosity of the Brazilian flora is the tree-lily ( Vel-
lozia), locally called Ganella d'Ema. It flourishes in the
Campos geraes of Piauhy and Goyaz, and is noted for the
lovely " mauve-coloured flowers at the end of each branch.
In form the plant resembles a candelabra, but in com-
position no production of the vegetable world. The
branches and stem consist, as it were, of a number of
deep cups placed one within the other, strung upon a
hard and tough pithy stem that runs through the
centre " (Wells, vol. ii. p. 123). There are several known
species, usually 4-5 feet high, and one in the Sapao
valley about double that size.
Fauna
As already remarked, many of the Brazilian animals
have acquired, or else further developed, climbing habits.
This is specially true of the apes, who belong exclusively
to the platyrhine (broad-nose) family, and are endowed
with prehensile tails, a feature by which the American
monkeys are strikingly distinguished from those of the
Old World. But prehensile extremities are also pos-
sessed by many other denizens of the woodlands, — rats,
mice, porcupines, sloths, frogs, lizards, and even some of
the larger carnivora, besides many of the bird tribe. In
this class the parrot family is as largely represented as is
that of the apes amongst the mammals, whence the ex-
pressions " parrot land " and " ape land " concurrently
542
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TKAVEL
applied to the whole region. But perhaps with more
justice it might be called the " insect land," for nowhere
else is there found such an infinite variety of these low
organisms, ranging from the largest and most resplendent
butterflies and beetles down to the tiniest and most
-^ '\.
^?
YELLOW-TAILKD HOWLEll AND YOUNG.
ferocious ants, jiggers, mosquitoes, ticks, carrupatos and
otlier equally pestilent Mchos. In Brazil all noxious
creatures, every dreaded or despised thing, or whatever
no other name can be found for at the moment, are
" bichos," properly grubs, but in general all kinds of
pests and vermin, big and little, for which this region,
BRAZIL 543
for reasons already explained, can hold its own against the
world.
Three zoological zones have been distinguished, — the
wooded eastern coast-lands, the central canipos, and
Amazonia. Here the main stream itself forms a sort of
parting-line between the southern forms, ranging from its
right bank nearly to the Plate estuary, and the northern,
amongst which Central American types are numerous if
not dominant. But the huge beasts so widely diffused
in Tertiary times have disappeared, and in Brazil, as in
other parts of the New World, no mammals have sur-
vived larger than the juguar, puma, peccary, tapir, capy-
bara, the aquatic manatee and the howling ape.
Of apes large and small there are over fifty species,
all except ten confined to the northern zone. The
howlers, most characteristic of all, are of socialjle habits,
and would seem to have developed a kind of tribal
organisation under a chief howler. It is his office to
lead the concert of dismal music, which is unlike that of
any other animal, and is heard miles away about dawn
and sunset. The group seldom leaves the tree where it
has taken up its abode, holding on by their tails even
when drinking. The harhados, " bearded," as the Brazi-
lians call them, are the least tameable of all beasts, and
even the Indians, who contrive to make pets or com-
panions of most animals, never succeed in striking up a
fellowship with a howler. Less known, although larger
than this tribe, is the huriquivi (Ateles arachnoides), of
which there are four varieties ranging as far south as
S. Paulo, and one, the miriki, is quite 3 feet high. But
for sagacity and cunning the coati of Amazonia has
no rival, and may also easily be domesticated. The
natives, however, prefer the harrigtido or woolly ape
{Lagothrix), whom they call the midcque, or " little black,"
544 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
and whose air of comical gravity, coiubiued with his
strikingly hmnan features, is highly amusing. Very
attractive are also the Capuchine monkeys (Cehus
monachus), and the pretty little marmosets, who form a
MARMOSETS.
sort of link between the monkey and the squirrel, and of
whom as many as fourteen species have been described.
Even more numerous is the tribe of bats and vampires,
comprising twenty-four known species, the largest of
which, the true vampire {Phyllostovia Sj)ecfrnvi), is 6
inches long and 2 feet from tip to tip of its leathern
wings. In Ceara and some other districts these blood-
thirsty creatures commit serious ravages amongst the
BRAZIL 545
cattle, and they swarm to such an extent in the caves
of Minas Geraes and the Sapao valley, that, to believe
the natives, " it is there impossible for any animal to live
through the night " (Wells, vol. ii. p. 116). On the other
hand, the Carnivora are not so numerous as might be
supposed from the apparently splendid cover afforded by
the boundless woodlands. But here most of their natural
prey have taken to the trees, while the dark and gloomy
recesses of the forests are not the most suitable environ-
ment for large animal life (see p. 21). The largest are
the jaguar, here everywhere called an ounce {Felis onza),
and the kuguar or puma {Felis concolor), both members
of the cat family, of which there are altogether six
species, distinguished chiefly by their size, the colour and
markings of their coats. Thus there are the " spotted
ounce," and the " black ounce," and some of these felines
are said to be as large as an ox of moderate size. The
domestic cat is noted for its long legs and ears, as in
Greece.
The canine group, as mostly in the New World, is
poorly represented in Brazil, which has little to show
except the loho {Canis juhatus), the Brazilian dog {C.
Irasiliensis), and a fox-like animal (C. vetulus) met only
in the Campos. All have in common a great dread of
man, and even the lobo (literally " wolf ") never ventures
to infest human habitations. On the coast-lands, and
especially about the river mouths, is often seen the South
American raccoon {Procyon cancrivorus), which is about
the size of a setter, and has the curious habit of dipping
its food in water before eating it. More widely diffused
is the coati, of which there are two species, Nasua
socialis, living together in large connnunities, and JV.
soUtaria, found only in couples. Still more numerous
are the marsupial opossums, of which there are tw^o
VOL. I 2 N
.46
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
chief groups {Didelphys and Chironectes), with as luuiiy
as twelve species, varying from the size of a small mouse
to that of a large cat, and generally with long noses and
ears, and prehensile tails.
In Brazil the rodents are well represented ; of the
porcupine family alone there are six varieties, all climbers
with prehensile tails, while the equally numerous cavies
(Cavia paca) are of almost amphibious habits. They are
excellent swimmers, and much hunted, their flesh being
esteemed a great delicacy. It would be difficult to
imagine a more lively scene than a paca hunt, in which
old and young take part, some with their dogs ashore,
others afloat in canoes armed with long bamboos used as
fishing-rods. " A splash in front of us, — a paca has just
taken a header into the river, — another and another and
another ; now several dark spots appear above the water,
more and yet more, the stream is alive with swimming
pacas. Now the long bamboos come into play ; one is
seized like a fishing-rod, and the hook at the end is
adroitly hooked into the neck of the nearest paca, and
drawn towards the canoe. More pacas slip or run down
BRAZIL
54^
the bank, driven by the yelping dogs. Standing np in
the canoe, out of five shots I bag two of the animals.
The others scatter in various directions, chiefly down
stream towards the opposite shore " (Wells, vol. i. p. 191).
Of the edentates there are three families — the sloth
with two genera {Brady pus tridactylus andi>V. turqaatus) ;
the armadillo with six species, one as large as a half-
o-rown hog ; and the ant-eater, with two genera, one very
large {Myrmecophaga juhata), frequenting the campos, the
other much smaller (i£ tetradactyla), a denizen of the
woodlands. But for these armadillos and ant-eaters, who
help to keep down the teeming insect life of the land,
Brazil would be scarcely inhabital^le by man.
Four species of the deer tribe, all called Guazu
("Great"), have been described — Guazu fiieu {Cervvspalu-
dosus), whose home is about the streams of the marshy
woodlands ; Guazu-y (C. campestris), confined to the
548
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Campos; Guazu-pUa (C. rufus), the Brazilian roe; and
(iuazu-lira {0. simplicicornis). The first alone bears
laro-e antlers, and the flesh of none is esteemed Ity the
natives.
Besides the tapir, largest of all Brazilian mammals.
THE latEAT AKT- EATER.
the Pachy derma ta are represented by two species of the
peccary^ — IHcotyles lalnatus or white-lipped, and D.
torquatus or collared peccary. The former associates in
droves of from forty to sixty, is very fierce, and will not
BKAZIL 549
hesitate to attack the hunter, nearly always witli fatal
results unless he can take refuge in time in the branches
of a tree. The liesh of both is prized, although the
gland in the middle of the back secretes a musky substance
which taints the meat if not speedily removed after
capture. The tapir ranges in America from the United
States to Patagonia, and was formerly widespread over
both hemispheres, but now survives elsewhere only in
Sumatra. In the Amazon are met two kinds of aquatic
mammals — the lamantin or manatee {Vacca marina),
often 9 or 10 feet long, and the hoto or honto, a fresh-
water dolphin (Delphinus amazonicns), about 6 feet long.
Both are hunted, like the whale, with harpoons, the
former for its flesh, which is said to taste like pork, and
also for its blubber, from wiiich as much as 25 gallons
of train-oil may be obtained.
Ornithologists have already enumerated nearly 1700
species of Brazilian birds, many of which are noted for
their lovely forms and gorgeous iridescent plumage. In
these respects nothing in nature can surpass the beautiful
little humming-birds, which flash like sunbeams in the
woods, in the campos, and in private gardens. Of the
390 species already described probably about 200 are
found in Brazil, and amongst these are the Lo'phornis
ornata and the Choysolamjns moschitus, perhaps the
loveliest members of the whole family. Another species,
the Macroglossum, bears such an extraordinary resem-
blance to the moth of like name, that even educated
whites firmly believe that one is transformed into the
other.
The toucan tribe has also numerous representatives,
all noted for the apparently disproportionate size of their
beaks, the explanation of which is given by Bates :
" Flowers and fruits on the crowns of the large trees of
550 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
South American forests grow principally towards the
end of slender twigs, which will not bear any considerable
weight," so that the length of its beak enables the toucan
to " reach and devour immense quantities of fruit while
seated, and thus its heavy body and gluttonous appetite
form no obstacles to the prosperity of the species." ^
Many of the Brazilian birds are endowed with soft
melodious notes, and these are classed as warblers {Canorce),
of which Burmeister reckons 133 species. The same
naturalist enumerates 185 croakers and 82 screamers,
the noisiest of all being the parrots, which fly about in
large flocks like our crows, are never at rest, and on the
least pretext raise a concert of the most ear-splitting
shrieks.
It is remarkable that there are no birds of passage,
although some groups seem now and then to migrate
from east to west, or from west to east, apparently in
quest of food. Carrion and other carnivorous birds are
represented by 23 species of falcons, 8 of owls, and 3 or
4 of vultures, including the king vulture, and the thievish
Urubu {Cathartes hrasiliensis). Of the latter Bates writes
that they are always loafing about and watching their
opportunity, and the instant the kitchen is left unguarded
" the bold marauders march in and lift the lids of the
saucepans with their beaks to rob them of their contents "
(vol. i. p. 296).
As in the Orinoco, the sand-banks of the Amazon and
its tributaries are frequented by myriads of turtles, some
over 3 feet long and proportionately wide. They yield
vast quantities of excellent food, while from their eggs
is prepared a " butter," which is highly esteemed. Un-
fortunately they are preyed upon by so many enemies
that their numbers are sensiljly diminishing, and the
^ The Naturalid on the River Amazon, vol. i. p. 344.
BRAZIL 551
Indian saying that " there are more turtles in the Amazon
than mosquitoes in the air" no longer holds good. Of
the eight species of ymari (alligator) the largest is the
yacar4-guazu {Caiman niger), which sometimes measures
26 or 27 feet in length, and abounds especially in the
Para waters. Not more than a dozen of the 48 or 50
species of snakes are really dangerous. One of the
largest is the boa constrictor, which attains a length of
30 or 32 feet, but is not poisonous. It frequents the
recesses of the rocks in dry, sunny districts, and is much
less dreaded than the water boa {Boa aquatica), which
grows to a larger size and is even said to swallow horses
and oxen.
Amongst the venomous species are the ubiquitous
rattle-snake, confined, however, in Brazil to the open
Campos districts, and the even more dreaded and wide-
spread Jararaca {Bothrops leucurus). Still more numerous
are the batrachians — toads and frogs in endless variety,
of all sizes and colours, swarming on land and water, in
the marshy depressions, and on the highest trees. Some
of the latter have a metallic note like the hammering
of half a dozen blacksmiths, while the croaking of others
is an almost infallible warning of rain.
The teeming insect life, to which reference was above
made, is almost rivalled by that of the marine and fresh
waters. In the Amazon basin alone there are over
1800 distinct species, chiefly of the families of the
Siluridce, Salmonidce, and Lahridm. One of the most
widespread is the ferocious piranha, of which there are
several varieties, varying from 4 to 14 inches in length.
It is the same as the Caribe of the Orinoco (see p. 98),
only if possible more voracious and destructive, readily
attacking boas and alligators, and reducing horses or
oxen to a skeleton in a few minutes.
552 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Strange to say, many of the Brazilian fishes, unlike
the birds, are migratory, multitudes passing in a certain
established order to the flooded tracts in the rainy
season, and returning in spring to their accustomed
haunts in the rivers. On these occasions myriads fall
an easy prey to the herons, cormorants, gulls, falcons,
and alligators that gather for the feast on the banks of
the streams, without, however, perceptibly diminishing
their numbers. Many, such as the huge pirarucu {Sudis
gigas), the pirarara, the sorumhin, the 2^'^'>^'f'nambu, and
the piranha itself, are edible, and one of the most
interesting sights in the large towns is the fish-market,
every visit to which reveals some fresh member of the
finny tribe.
Inhabitants — The Aborigines
It was above seen that the present peoples of Brazil
represent three original stocks — the American, the Negro,
and the Caucasic — some still preserving their racial
purity, but the great majority merged in the general
population, which must on the whole be regarded as the
least homogeneous in Latin America. In general the
aborigines, of whom over 160 " nations " were enumerated
at the time of the discovery, have withdrawn inland and
up-stream from the seaboard, where they now survive
chiefly as one of the constituent elements of the settled
and civilised inhabitants. The descendants of those who
escaped destruction in the early wars, or absorption by
the first settlers, now form two distinct social groups —
the Indios hravos, that is, the still independent wild
tribes, and the Indios mansos, that is, the " tame," or
reduced and more or less civilised natives, who live in
fixed settlements (the military colonies and the aldea-
mentos oi' village communities in the neighbourhood of
BRAZIL 553
the settled parts), profess the Eoinan Catholic religion,
speak the lingoa geral, and perhaps a little Portuguese
here and there, and begin to regard themselves as
Brazilian citizens.
Jointly the two groups may be estimated at about
800,000, and of these some 300,000 may be classed as
bravos. They still occupy nearly one-half of the whole
land, but are concentrated chiefly along the Amazonian
river-banks, and about the sources of the great affluents.
Although no longer raided or otherwise molested by the
whites, they are everywhere melting away, victims of
small-pox and other epidemics, and of " fire-water," as
well as of the changed economic conditions. Their
hunting and fishing preserves are continually encroached
upon, while those who had reached the agricultural state
are crowded out of their cultivated lands, and thus lapse
again into the condition of mere savages, for whom there
is no hope since the cessation of the former processes of
assimilation by alliances between the two races.
Nor do the mansos fare very well at the hands of
the military and other officials, who are supposed to
continue the civilising work of the Jesuits in the former
missions. They no longer receive such useful instruction
as they are capable of understanding ; no attempt is
made to control or guide them, to restrain their vicious
tendencies and especially their passion for ardent spirits,
or to encourage those indunstrious habits for which many
of the old communities were distinguished. The ad-
ministrators of the aldeamentos usually consist of a
director, a missionary, and an intrepreter, supported by
a small armed force of negroes or mulattoes in uniform.
But the director is mostly an " absentee," who rarely
applies the Government subsidies to the moral and
general education of the Indians in the way intended by
554
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
the authorities. In fact, little is done for their benefit,
except by some of the padres who, faithful to their trust,
endeavour to continue the on the whole beneficent work
of the Jesuits.
The Tapuya, Tupi-G-uarani, Carib, and Arawak Families
Some fresh light has been thrown on the ethnical
relations of the Brazilian aborigines by the researches
of Von den Steinen,
Ehreureich, Coudreau,
and others about the
liead-waters of the
Amazonian attluents.
After the failures of
D'Orbigny, Spix, and
Martins and other emi-
nent anthropologists,
all further attempts
to group them accord-
ing to their physical
characters must be
abandoned, at least
for the present. But,
from the materials col-
lected, especially by
the Von den Steinen
KAYA?0.
expedition m the
central parts about the sources of the Xingu and other
lar<^e rivers, ethnologists have been able to estal)lish
four great linguistic families — Tapuya, Tupi-Guarani,
Carib, and Arawak — which, at least to some extent,
correspond with the physical differences.
The Tapuya domain, which orginally extended from
BKAZIL
1 5
the seaboard inland to and l)eyond the Tocantins basin,
comprises two sub-groups — the (Jrs in the west, incbiding
the Ki(ray<is, Knyapos, and Sujias of the rivers Xingu and
Araguaya, and the Ainwrcs {Botocudos) and others now
mainly confined to the coast ranges. At the discovery
the innumerable Tupi tril)es were in possession of the
coast-lands between the Amazon and Plate estuaries,
from whicli they have
since mostly with-
drawn, some up the
Amazon as fiir as
the Peruvian frontier,
others to the central
plateaux already held
by tribes of the kin-
dred Guarani stock.
Hence, liesides those
elsewhere described in
Argentina, Uruguiiy,
and I*araguay, others
are also met about the
upper courses of the
Xingu, Tapajos, Ma-
deira, and as far west mi u \
as the Marahon. Such
are the Coromas and Omagnas of the Purus and
Marahon ; the Gvunri/os of the Upper Guapore : the
Mundrvrns of the Middle Amazon, the Apiacas of the
Paranatinga ; the Yurunas and 3fanitsmvas of the
Xingu, and many others.
The Caribs, hitherto supposed to be confined to
Venezuela, Guiana, and the Antilles, have now been met
in the very heart of the Continent, where they are repre-
sented by the IMa'iri and JVtdi'mpoi.^ of the V\^])eY
556
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Xingu. As the Carib speech of these groups is of
archaic type, and their culture also extremely rude and
primitive, the inference seems reasonable that here is to
be souirht the Carib cradle-land, as is moreover indicated
by the traditions of the tribes themselves. The first
migratory movements would therefore appear to have
been from Central Brazil to Guiana and the Antilles,
and not, as hither-
to generally assumed,
from the Antilles
southwards.
On the other hand,
the Arawak race would
now seem to have orig-
inated in the north,
and to have spread
thence over the Or-
inoco and Amazon
basins. Besides the
well - known northern
groups — Maypures,
Atorais, Wapisianas,
and others — many
kindred tribes have
now been met far to the south and west. Siich are the
Piros of the Ucayali, the Miranhas of the Jurua, the
Canamaris of the Purus, the Manaos of the Eio Negro,
the Custenrnis, Vaurds, Mehinakus, and Yaualajjiti of the
Xingu, and the Guanas on the left bank of the Upper
Paraguay.
Amid much uniformity and even sameness, two some-
what marked physical types can still be distinguished
in these multifarious ethnical groups. While some have
short thick-set figures, broad and rather fiat features,
BliAZIL
retreating forehead, prominent cheek-bones, ^^lightly
oblique eyes, small nose, depressed at the root, and light
yellowish-brown complexion, others are noted for their tall,
slim, and sometimes heavy forms, straight eyes set in
well-rounded and high -arched sockets, large, straight or
even aquiline nose, more regular oval features, reddish-
brown colour, brighter and more animated expression.
The former present at
times a startling re-
semblance to the Asia-
tic Mongol, the latter
to the Caucasic Eur-
opean, and thus the
two types of primitive
man, the long and
round-headed revealed
l)y the fossil skulls of
Minas Geraes and Ar-
gentina, would seem to
be still represented in
the present aboriginal
populations of Brazil.
But during the
countless ages that
they have been thrown together in an isolated and
relatively narrow region of the glol)e, there have
been overlappings and interminglings, resulting in a
general uniformity both of the physical and mental
characters, as reflected especially in the long, black,
lank hair, and the polysynthetic speech, which are the
common inheritance of all alike. Although no large
political states had anywhere been developed, so that
we cannot speak in Brazil as on the Andean plateau, of
great nations, but only of tribes, clans, and even family
NAHUQUA.
558 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
groups, there have nevertheless been widespread move-
ments, friendly associations or hostile clashings, invasions
and conquests, as shown by the great predominance of
some linguistic families over others. Thus the Guarani-
Tupi stock language, which probably orginated about the
Middle Parana and Upper Uruguay basins, had already
reached the seaboard and was elsewhere widely diffused
long before the arrival of the whites, and consequently
long before the idiom was selected by the Jesuits as the
general medium of intercourse in all the missions. They
took the instrument best suited for their purpose, and
that such an instrument was available is of itself sufficient
proof that there had been in remote times shiftings and
interchanges of speech between tribes of different origin,
and it is this fact that, as above seen, makes it so
difficult or impossible any longer to classify the Brazilian
aborigines on other than a linguistic basis.
To migratory movements and interminglings may also
partly be due the similarity in the usages of so many of
the wild tribes, although common practices, social habits
and even religious ideas are often best explained by the
common nature of tlie physical surroundings. Most of
them have ceased to be nomads in the strict sense of the
term, and although still mainly hunters and fishers, they
now also cultivate a little land in the forest glades. They
generally go naked, and build round huts of palm foliage,
which, however, contain few household utensils besides
the hammocks often neatly arranged round the sides.
In the camping-grounds are generally seen some of
the native animals, whom they show great skill in taming,
but never any of the European domestic animals, except
the horse amongst some of the steppe tribes, although to
the indigenous crops, such as manioc and maize, they have
added beans, bananas, ground nuts and a few other
BKAZIL 559
exotics. All have a knowledge of lire, produced by
friction and used solely for cooking purposes. It is note-
worthy that all the boiling is done by the women, and
the roasting and braizing by the men, the explanation
probably being that the former process was a female
invention, suggested by the forms of the gourds, after-
wards imitated in clay, whereas roasting resulted from-
the experience acquired when hunting. In the embers
of the fires kindled to scare wild beasts are often found
the remains of small animals, fruits and roots " done to
a turn." But the men alone join in the chase, and to
them alone would thus be reserved the privilege of pre-
paring the produce of the hunt in a similar way.
Although living on the banks of navigable waters,
some of the tribes have never invented even a raft, while
others make excellent bark canoes and dug-outs, used
both for fishing and piracy, and in recent times also for
trading purposes. The weapons are almost everywhere
the same — bow and arrow, a formidable club of black
palm-wood, a red-wood battle-axe, spears or darts and
blow-pipes. The last mentioned, also of palm-wood, are
usually nine or ten feet long, with little ten or twelve
inch darts, tipped like the arrows in the potent curari
poison, not however universally, but only amongst some
of the Amazonian tribes. The effect of this virus on the
human system is most remarkable, and can be explained
only on the assumption that it attacks, not the sensory
but the motor nerves, the consequence being that, while
the patient still feels, he is powerless to make any
response to outward stimulus. But death soon ensues,
apparently from paralysis of the respiratory organs.
There is also a kind of sling with which stones and hard
clay balls are hurled from a little net, and turtles are
taken with barbed darts or harpoons.
560
COMPENDIUM OF OEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
All delight in personal ornaments or what they
regard as such. The chief adornments are feather-work,
coloured stones, shells, the claws and teeth of wild
beasts, glass beads obtained by barter, painting with
ochres and vegetable dyes, wooden or bone labrets aiid
ear-plugs, but not tattooing except amongst the Mun-
drucus and a few others. Cannibalism, formerly wide-
spread, still survives
here and there amongst
the Amazonian and
perhaps some of the
hill tribes near the
seaboard. Such are,
or were till lately,
the Botocudos of the
Aimoras range, who
are also noted for the
enormous size of their
lip and ear ornaments,
round wooden discs
two to three inches in
diameter. The Boto-
cudos are amongst the
rudest and most primi-
tive of all peoples, and
were long regarded and treated hj the white settlers
rather as wild beasts than as human beings. To exter-
minate them recourse was even had to the artificial
spread of small-pox, everything being considered lawful
to get rid of such " vermin." The Botocudos have thus
lieen cleared from the plains, but several groups still hold
their ground about the head-waters of the Eio Dulce.
Cannibals also are certainly the much dreaded Ifira-
nhas, who roam the region between the Putumayo and
EOROKO OF CENTKAL BRAZIL.
BEAZIL 561
the Japura, and are recognised by their pecuhar nose
ornament, — two large shell buttons let into slits in the
middle of the nostrils. Still more formidable are the
Mundrucus, the Faiguizd or " Head-cutters " of their
neighbours, who occupy a considerable domain along the
south bank of the Amazon and thence inland between
the Eios Madeira and Tapajos. Estimates of their
number range from 15,000 or 20,000 to 40,000; but
all agree that they are on the wane, wdiich need not be
regretted in the case of ferocious savages, of whom Cou-
dreau, their last observer, declared that they knew neither
right nor honourable warfare, but only " murder pure and
simple." Amongst them the rank of chief (hichawa) is
not hereditary but obtained by personal prowess, proved
by the capture of at least ten heads, which are mummified
by a drying process and then worn as trophies, just as
the Eed Indians wore the scalps of the slain in battle.
They are also amongst the tribes who kill and sometimes
eat the infirm and aged, in order thus to spare them a
lingering death and burial in the cold ground, or, as
others report, to prevent waste of good food. But
accounts differ, and some even declare that the Mun-
drucus are noted for their honesty, as well as for the
gentle manners, brightness and vivacity of their women.
In any case a more pleasant picture is presented by
the Guanas and others of Matto Grosso, who are not
only skilful boat-builders and stOck-breeders but also
raise excellent crops, spin, weave, and dye their cotton
fabrics, and have learnt from the negroes how to treat
the sugar-cane.
The Brazilian Negroes
Brazil has to thank this sugar industry, even more
than its mineral wealth, for the large percentage of black
VOL. I 2
562 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
blood that has entered into the composition of her in-
habitants. Their approximate numbers and distribution
have already been given, and here the essential point to
note is that all have been absolutely free citizens of the
republic since the final extinction of slavery in 1888.
As indicated by their local collective names, they came
originally for the most part from the Portuguese West
African possessions of Angola {Nagoa Negroes) and
Upper Guinea, of which the capital was Elmina {Mina
Negroes). The hot moist climate, especially of the
plantation districts, suited them admirably, and, as they
were on the whole treated with great humanity by their
employers, they throve as a race in their new Brazilian
homes. Here, for better for worse, they are permanently
established, and although there is no political or social
negro question in Brazil, where all enjoy complete equality,
and where even racial prejudices exist only in a very
mild form, there is none the less an ethnical problem
now in process of slow solution. This problem, which
cannot here be further discussed, may be thus formulated.
How will the destiny of the land be ultimately affected
by the complete fusion of tlie American, the African,
and the European elements in the most thickly peopled
if not the richest section of the republic ?
It should be noticed that by the emancipation all
further importation of Africans has been arrested, and
that the males have from the first considerably out-
numbered the females, while the defective statistics seem
to show that amongst the blacks the mortality is in
excess of the birth-rate. The mulattoes, however, are
certainly increasing in numbers, although the pure whites
tend to gain the upper hand both socially and politically.
Slavery was not abolished by a stroke of the pen, as
in the British Empire, but by a gradual process in terms
BRAZIL 563
of the law of September 28, 1871, which emancipated
all children born in and after 1872, and enabled all
others to purchase their freedom for sums varying from
£90 to £110. At that time the servile class numbered
about 1,610,000, and they had fallen to 600,000 in
1888, when by a special enactment all were henceforth
declared free, without compensation to the owners.
These steps naturally resulted here as elsewhere in a
disturbance of the social relations down to the lowest
strata. The indolent freedmen, disliking work except
under compulsion, at first declined all engagements,
became idle loafers, and found many sentimental sym-
pathisers to encourage and even give them a little help
to play that role. Then these got tired and the negroes
got hungry, and so things have begun to right themselves.
They now readily accept employment as gardeners, day
labourers, domestic servants, and especially porters in the
large cities, their brawny frames being well suited for
such work. At best overgrown children, with all their
faults and good qualities, they are naturally loyal, and
soon become attached to those employers who treat them
well. But all do not treat them well, and so many leave
their places, spend their earnings in dissipation, and
w^hen driven to extremities enlist in such numbers that
whole battalions in the Brazilian army consist of blacks,
always brave and amenable to discipline.
Others hang about the skirts of society, swell the
ranks of the criminal classes, and to them has been at-
tributed the steady increase of burglaries and other deeds
of violence in all the large towns. Much injury has also
been inilicted on the coffee industry in S. Paulo since
the cessation of slave labour. Here were employed about
100,000 blacks, nearly all of whom at once "struck
work," and returned to their old homes in the north-
564 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPvAVEL
eastern states. They have, however, now been largely
replaced by whites on the co-operative principle, which
has been introduced with some success since the abolition
of the empire.
The Europeans
A sharp distinction is drawn by the whites between
the Fllho do Beino (" Son of the Kingdom "), that is, the
native of Portugal, Madeira or the Azores, and the Filho
da Terra (" Son of the Soil "), that is, the Brazilian in a
pre-eminent sense, who claims to be of more or less pure
Portuguese descent, is of Portuguese speech, and forms
the cultured section of the population. How far the
claim of racial purity is justified can no longer be deter-
mined, the estimates varying as much as from one-
ninth to one-fourth.
Most of the later immigrants came, not from Portugal,
but from Madeira and the Azores, and from these the
early settlers are distinguished by a lighter or pale
yellowish colour, shorter figures, more elegant and easy
address. Careful observers have also noticed a marked
difference between the Northern and the Southern
Brazilians, the latter, who represent the historical Paul-
istas of S. Paulo, Pdo Grande do Sul, and Minas Geraes,
being more robust, industrious, and energetic, while also
approaching nearer to the European type. It was this
rude but vigorous element that made Brazil, helped to
beat back the French and Dutch " interlopers," opened
up the backwoods, developed the mining and plantation
industries, unscrupulously and impartially raided and
plundered aborigines, Jesuit Missions, and the Spaniard
alike, and advanced the frontiers of the empire nearly
to the foot of the Western Cordilleras.
Later, they busied themselves with internal political
BRAZIL 565
affairs, more than once threatened the integrity of the
State, and may yet bring about a rupture between the
tropical northern and the sub-tropical and temperate
southern lands. The sympathies of many, especially in
Rio Grande do Sul, are with their Argentine and
Uruguayan neighbours, and the tendency seems to be for
all these southern populations of relatively pure Caucasic
stock to gravitate together round the Plate estuary, and
build up a powerful confederacy strong enough to control
the destiny, not only of Brazil, but of the Latin world in
South America.
Topography
A first glance at a topographical map of Brazil gives
the impression that in this region there are no inland
towns, none at all except on the sea-coast. The impres-
sion is so far correct that in the three vast provinces of
Amazonas, Matto Grosso, and Goyaz, with an area of over
1,550,000 square miles, there is actually only one place
— Manaos — which has over 10,000 inhabitants. Yet
so numerous are the urban groups in the Atlantic States
that Brazil, as a whole, contains more large cities, both
relatively and absolutely, than any other region in the
Southern Continent. No doubt some exaggeration pre-
vails regarding their size, owing to the practice of giving
the returns, not for the towns themselves, but for the
townships (Comarcas), which of ten comprise extensive rural
districts. But the subjoined table, in which this source
of error is largely eliminated, shows that in Brazil there
are over sixty places with more than 10,000 inhabitants,
and as many as six with 100,000 and upwards, while
according to the latest estimates (1898) the federal
capital is now" the largest city in South America, having
already outstripped its rival, Buenos Ayres, by several
566
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
thousands. It may also be noticed that the Brazilian
towns, being laid out, like those of the Old World, at
haphazard, or at least without much regard for symmetry,
are generally far more interesting and picturesque than
those of Spanish America, planned for the most part on
the convenient but monotonous rectangular lines of the
chess-board.
Pop. est.
Pop. est.
1894-98.
1894-9S.
Rio de Janeiro
800,000
Santa Anna . . .16,000
S. Paulo . . . .
220,000
Campinas .
16,000
Bahia
200,000
Tauhate .
16,000
Recife (Pernambuco) '
190,000
Ouro Preto
16,000
Para (Belem) .
110,000
Alcantara .
15,000
Porto Alegre .
100,000
Bom-Fim .
15,000
Fortaleza . .
48,000
Sorocaba .
15,000
Natal .
40,000
S. Fidelis .
14,000
S. Luiz (Maranhao)
40,000
Aracaju
14,000
Maceio .
, 34,000
Diamantina
13,000
Pelotas .
32,000
Guaratiba .
13,000
Bello Horizonte
30,000
Iraja
13,000
Florianopolis (Desterro)
28,000
Maragojipe
13,000
Nictheroy
26,000
Paranahiba
12,000
Caxias
25,000
Petropolis .
12,000
Therezina
. 24,000
Maranguape
12,000
Cameta ,
22,000
Estancia .
12,000
Manaos ,
22,000
Alagoinbas
12,000
Curitiba .
21,000
ObiJos
12,000
Campos .
. 20,000
S. Domingos
12,000
Praia Grande .
20,000
Alegrete .
12,000
Aracaty .
, 18,000
Sobral
11,000
Ceara-Mirim .
18,000
Cachoeiro .
11,000
Inhauma
18,000
Uberaba .
11,000
Parahiba
. 18,000
Nazareth .
11,000
Rio Bonito
18,000
Larena
11,000
Itaborany
18,000
Itn .
11,000
Amarante
. 17,000
Parahybana
11,000
Braganza
. 17,000
Piracieaba
11,000
Breves .
. 17,000
Castro
. 10,000
Santafem
. 16,000
Iguape
. 10,000
Campo Grande
. 16,000
Victoria .
. 10,000
Jacarepagua .
16,000
Cuyaba .
8,000
Santos .
16,000
Goyaz
3,000
BKAZIL 567
Maiiaos, capital of Amazonas, stands on a little
eminence on the left bank of the Eio Negro 10 miles
above its confluence with the main stream. Barra do
Rio Xegro, as it was formerly called, takes its present
name from a now extinct Indian tribe, which was at
one time the head of a powerful confederacy at first
hostile but afterwards well disposed towards the Por-
tuguese. In those days the Paolistas and their Indian
allies had extended their raiding expeditions to the
Upper Amazon waters, and had here erected a strong
outpost to protect their base of operations, and keep up
the communications with the planters of the Lower
Amazon districts, to whom they sold the kidnapped natives.
Such was the origin of Manaos, which is now a thriving
riverside port, where rubber and other local produce is
brought from far and wide for export to Europe, and
whence all kinds of manufactured goods are distributed
to the surrounding populations. Here are settled a
number of English traders and speculators engaged in
developing the natural resources of Amazonia, which
already enjoys the benefit of direct trading relations with
the outer world. Lying at the converging point of the
great waterways — Upper and Lower Amazon, Eio Negro,
and Madeira — Manaos is the necessary emporium for the
exchanges of the interior, and is consequently one of those
fcivoured places for which a great future is anticipated.
But if Manaos may thus become the future " Queen
of the Amazon," this title has already been earned by
the great city of Belem, better known as Farce, from the
vast province of that name of which it is the capital.
Founded in 1615 on the Gtiajara inlet of the Para
estuary. Para was little heard of till the middle of the
nineteenth century, when, after being nearly ruined by
civil strife and epidemics, it entered on a career of sur-
568 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
prising prosperity, and has now direct commercial relations
with half the world.
All visitors speak highly of its pleasant surroundings,
and of its unrivalled position on the right bank of the
great estuary which cpmmunicates directly with the
rich Tocantins basin, and has hitherto attracted all the
shipping of the Amazon itself As long as the northern
island-studded branch of the main stream continues to
be neglected nothing can threaten the supremacy of
Para, whose yearly exports — chiefly rubber and colonial
produce, now average about £4,000,000. Another
indication of its rapid expansion is afforded by the
growth of the population, which, after falling from
25,000 to 15,000 during the so-called Cahanagem social
war (1835-48), and to about 5000 after the terrible
outbreak of yellow fever in 1850, again rose to over
•100,000 in 1890, and is now (1899) estimated at
120,000. Although somewhat endangered by shifting
banks and reefs, the channel is navigable from its mouth
to Para, a distance of 60 miles, and thence aU the way
to Manaos for large sea-going steamers.
" The city of Para has not much to boast of in
architecture ; nevertheless from the river it has an im-
posing appearance, from the number of its churches.
The convent of San Merced, and the president's palace,
amongst old buildings, and the new theatre, a very
elegant structure, are all worthy of notice. The streets
are mostly broad and well-paved, and kept decently
clean. Excellent hired carriages ply for the accommo-
dation of the richer city merchants, while a tramway,
w^orked by a locomotive, takes the humbler individual out
to the cooler districts of Nazareth, a very pretty suburb
with many elegant villa residences." ^ Several of the
^ Mathews, p. 5.
BRAZIL 569
thoroughfares are lined with fine palm-trees, there is a
large botanical garden, and a favonrahle impression is
produced by the unusually large number of scientific,
literary, and charitable institutions.
S. Luiz de Maranluio, capital of the State of Maranhao,
occupies a picturesque position on the wooded slopes of
the island of like name, where it was founded in 1594
by the French adventurer, Jacques Briffault, and by his
successor. La Eevardier^, named S. Louis in honour of
Louis XIII., in 1610. This name has been retained by
the Portuguese, although the French intruders were
expelled in 1615. The island is partly separated from
the mainland by the almost land-locked harbour of S.
Marcos Bay, the entrance to which is commanded on
the south side by the capital, and on the north by the
seaport of Alcantara. Both places do a brisk export
trade in coffee, hides, and sugar ; but the bay is slowly
silting up owing to the sediment brought down by the
coast-streams converging at this point.
Although destitute of any natural haven, Fortaleza,
capital of Ceara, is a larger place than S. Luiz. It lies
on an open roadstead at the mouth of the little Ptio
Ceara, where the anchorage is good, and large vessels
lind a little shelter from the south winds. It takes its
name from the " fortlet," which was here founded early in
the seventeenth century, both to keep the Tapuya Indians
in awe, and to prevent the Dutch from obtaining a foot-
ing on this part of the coast. The city is well-laid out
with broad well-paved and well-lighted streets, generally
planted with trees.
Therezina, capital of Piauhy, stands on the right
bank of the Paranahiba do Norte. Although dating
only from the year 1852, when the seat of the local
administration was removed thither from the old his-
570 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
torical city of Oeiras, it is already the largest place in
the State, its prosperity being largely due to its salu-
brious position some miles above the low-lying and
somewhat malarious district about the mouth of the
river. Here is the little seaport of Paranahiba, which
serves as the outlet for the cattle, hides, and other pro-
duce of this agricultural province.
A much larger and more important place is Natal,
capital of Eio Grande do Norte, which stands a few
miles south of Cape S. Eoque, and is consequently the
nearest Brazilian seaport to the Old World. Natal
occupies a sheltered position on the right bank of the
Eio Grande estuary, which, however, is obstructed by a
shallow bar and shifting sand-banks. A somewhat
similar position is held by Parahiba, which lies at the
head of the much larger Parahiba estuary, and is capital •
of the State named from this river. Here also the
approaches are endangered by several reefs and sand-
banks, so that all these northern seaports are avoided by
vessels of heavy draught.
To this cause is largely due the great expansion of
Recife de Pernamhuco, or simply Pernamhuco, capital of
the State of that name, which although far from a good
harbour, is at least the first south of Cape S. Eoque acces-
sible to ships drawing over 1 6 feet of water. Eecife (The
" Eeef "), which has remained the official name, has refer-
ence to the rocky island where, according to some
authorities, the first settlement was formed in 1504,
soon after the discovery. This island lies just inside a
long; frino-ino- reef which here encloses a considerable
expanse of deep water communicating with the open sea
through two or three navigaljle passages, and also con-
taining the larger island or peninsula of Antonio Vaz.
Both of these islands have long been covered wath
BRAZIL
571
buildings, and are connected by several bridges or cause-
ways with each other, with Boa Vista on the opposite
mainland, and by carriage roads with the former capital,
Oliiida, which occupies an eminence three or four miles
farther north. All these quarters are now comprised
within the municipal district, through which wind tlie
channels of the two coast-streams, Capiharihc and Beberihe,
here converging from the south and north.
STREET IN PERNAMBUCO.
Pernambuco, with its separate urban groups, thus pre-
sents on a small scale a position somewhat analogous to
Xew York and its cluster of detached quarters, with the
important difference that, instead of a spacious bay, there
is nothing beyond the barrier reef except an exposed
roadstead with bad anchorage. Hence the port is
already overcrowded, and Pernambuco cannot hope to
compete much longer with its .southern rival, Bahia,
unless one or otlier of the schemes be carried out which
572 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
have been projected to improve and enlarge the harbour.
Meanwhile the yearly shipping, including several lines
of Atlantic steamers, already exceeds 1,000,000 tons,
and the imports and exports (sugar, cotton, and all kinds
of forest and colonial produce) average about £8,000,000.
The State of Pernambuco is a chief centre of the cane-
sugar industry, and in 1898 as much as 112,000 tons
were shipped at Kecife, despite the competition of the
bounty-fed beet-root sugar in Europe.
The capital is also an important centre of intellectual
life, and amongst its numerous scientific and literary
institutions are the geological and geographical societies
and several technical and other educational establish-
ments. Some of the buildings, or parts of them, date
from the time of the Dutch, who seized Eecife in 1630,
and held the place with singular tenacity till finally
expelled in 1654. The present quarter of S. Antonio,
at the north end of Antonio Vaz, was long known as
Mauricea {Mauritsstad), so named in honour of Maurice
of N"assau.
South of Pernambuco follow, at nearly equal distances,
the flourishing seaport of Maceio, present capital of
Alagoas, on Alagoas Bay ; Aracaju, since 1855 capital
of Sergipe, on the right bank of the Eio Cotinguiba, six
or seven miles from the coast ; and Bahia, capital of the
State of like name, on the Bahia de Todos os Santos
(" All Hallows Bay "), the most spacious, if not the finest,
inlet on the east side of the Southern Continent. Bahia,
or, to give it its full official title, S. Salvador da Bahia
de Todos os Santos, was long the political, as it still is
the ecclesiastical, capital of Brazil. The first settlement,
said to have been founded by Diogo Alvares as early as
1510, appears to have been of a temporary character,
and the regular colony dates only from 1549, when
BRAZIL
573
Thome de Souza settled his followers on the inner slope
of the bold headland which projects southwards along
the east side of tlie bay. The harbour is thus sheltered
from the east and south-east winds, but not from the'
heavy Atlantic waves, which roll in through the narrow
entrance to the bay, and at times endangers the
shipping riding at anchor in deep water close in-shore.
STIIEKT IN r,AH!A.
Bahia comprises two distinct quarters — the lower
town at sea-level, and the upper town, which occupies
the crest of the headland, and is reached by a hydraulic
lift. As the headland, nearly 200 feet high, is the most
elevated ground in the wliole basin, a superb panoramic
view is commanded l)y the upper town of the great
inland sea and its richly wooded shores. The waters of
tliis magnificent inlet are of an emerald green colour,
while the clear blue sky heightens the effect of light and
574 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
shade produced by the dazzling white houses and the
tropical vegetation. But the prospect is tame compared
with that presented by the island-studded and hill-
encircled bay of Eio de Janeiro. As the metropolis of
the Brazilian church, Bahia is noted for the unusual
number of its ecclesiastical edifices, mostly in the some-
what monotonous style peculiar to the Jesuits. The
upper town, however, is adorned by several fine structures,
such as the Archbishop's Palace, the City Hall, the
Theatre, Museum, Library, Hospitals, Medical High
School, Treasury, and other Government buildings.
Visitors are attracted especially by the beautiful Passeio
Publico, municipal grounds containing a collection of
Brazilian animals and a marble pyramid, which com-
memorates the throwing open of the Brazilian seaports
to the trade of the world in 1808. Bahia, after being
nearly ruined by the abolition of the slave trade, has
benefited almost more than any other by this en-
lightened policy. Nearly 300,000 bags of coffee
were here shipped in 1898, and for many years
the total exports and imports have averaged about
£4,000,000, while the shipping now approaches
200,000 tons.
Tramways, here called " Bonds," radiate in various
directions, giving easy access to Itapagipe, Barra, Bio
Vermelho, and other pleasant suburban districts. But
there are two serious drawbacks — the large percentage
of negroes, who are more in evidence in the streets than
the whites, and the climate, which, owing to the exces-
sive heat and moisture, is very trying to Europeans.
Yellow fever committed great ravages in 1849, and was
followed in 1855-56 by a terrible outbreak of cholera.
But these epidemics, which seem to have spent their
virulence, are now less dreaded than the carneiradas, that
BRAZIL 575
is, the endemic agues in all the low-lying tracts subject
to periodical inundations.
Victoria, capital of Espirito Santo, is pleasantly situ-
ated at the head of the little bay which gives its name
to the State. With Victoria properly begins the zone
of present European colonisation, and since the com-
pletion of the harbour- works giving access to sea-going
vessels, great numbers of immigrants — Germans, Swiss,
Poles, and especially Italians — are here landed every
year. The port is indicated at a distance by the con-
spicuous Mestialve, i.e. Mestre Alvarez, a three-peaked
hill over 3000 feet high, which is one of the few heights
in Brazil supposed to be of igneous origin. It is de-
scribed by one observer as an extinct volcano still con-
taining sulphur beds.
Beyond Victoria follows the magnificent inlet which
gives its name both to the federal capital and to the
State of Hio de Janeiro. Facing this great city at the
entrance of the bay is the old settlement of the Tamoyo
Indians, Nictheroy, properly Nitherdhi. First sighted by
de Solis in 1515, and again visited by Magellan in 1519,
the Nidlieroy, or " Hidden Water," as it was called by
the Tamoyo natives, remained almost forgotten till the
year 1531 or 1532, when it was surveyed by Affonso de
Souza. Supposing, from its secluded character, that it
was the mouth of some great river, this navigator gave
it the name of Rio de Janeiro, the " January Eiver," in
reference to the first day of the new" year when he
entered the inlet. It is noteworthy that the Indian as
well as the Portuguese name still survives, Nictheroy,
which stands on the right side of the entrance, over
against the federal capital, being itself a large town, and
since 1835 capital of the State of Eio de Janeiro.
The many picturesque and varied beauties of the
BRAZIL 571
famous bay never fail to take the stranger by surprise.
A series of fantastic hills on the left of the entrance
especially attracts universal attention. Owing to their
striking resemblance to the outstretched human figure,
they have been collectively christened " The Stone Man,"
of which the famous " Sugar-loaf " hill forms the feet,
and the often-described " Gavia " the face in profile.
The bay itself presents one of the grandest prospects it
is possible to imagine. Huge granitic piles, assuming
the most eccentric outlines, present steep slopes which
rise sheer above the surface and take on either side -of
the entrance the aspect of natural fortresses. Within
the vast oval basin, some 30 miles long by 20 broad,
the horizon is everywhere bounded by the magnificent
ranges of the Serras de Vinoa, de Tingua, da Estrella,
dos Orgaos, do Morro Queimado, and others.
This little landlocked sea, the receptacle of numerous
rivers, streams, and torrents rushing down from the sur-
rounding hills, is studded with many islands and rocky
crags, amongst which the most noteworthy is Villegagnon,
with its fort of the same name. At the foot of the
Sugar-loaf are the batteries of S. Theodosio, on a projec-
tion of the land opposite the fort of Sa7ita Cruz, with the
little fortified island da-Lagem between the two. Farther
on is the lUia das Colras, on which are situated many
of the country seats of the Brazilian gentry. On tlie
western shore to tlie left are the suburbs of Botafogo,
north of the Morro do Flamivgo headland, and still
farther to the north the little shrine of Nossa Senhora da
Gloria, all combining to form one magnificent picture.
The eastern shore develops at the entrance a deep saceo or
bight flanked by a projection of the land ; the Fuuta da
A^ossa Senhora da Boa Viagem to the south, surmounted
by a chapel , and the Punta do Calahougo on the north.
VOL. I 2 p
578
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AXD TRAVEL
The city lies ou the western shore of the bay. Its
oldest quarter, dating from about the middle of the six-
teenth century, occupies an irregular plain between two
series of detached rocky hills, the southern series ending
with the Punta do Calaboucjo crowned by the castle of S.
Sebastian, and the northern terminating with the Morro
$!^^^:._
^^^^^^
RIO HARBOTJK.
Bento. Between these two points are the landing-places,
the quays, and the old Imperial Palace. A couple of
miles beyond the suburb of Mata Forcos is the castle of
S. Cristovao. Like most other Brazilian towns, Eio could
till lately boast of but few fine buildings, the cathedral
and several convents being more remarkable for size than
beauty. But in recent years the city has been adorned
by several fine structures, conspicuous amongst which are
BRAZIL 579
the Alfaiidega (Custom-Honse), the Treasury, the School
of Fine Arts, the City Hall, Post Oifice, Polytechnic,
Board of Agriculture, Opera, and several Theatres. Eio
is one of the chief outlets for the produce of the southern
plantations, and in 1897 over 4,000,000 bags of coffee
were shipped at this port. In the same year the total
tonnage of vessels entered and cleared exceeded 4,250,000
tons. Amongst the local industries are several woollen
factories and flour-mills, some of which are capaljle of
treating from 40,000 to 60,000 tons of wheat annually.
But the place still suffers from defective sanitary arrange-
ments, and although outbreaks of yellow fever and other
epidemics are less frequent than formerly, the death-rate
continues to be abnormally high, and Eio cannot yet be
classed with those Brazilian cities which enjoy the
reputation of being fairly healthy.
Its surroundings, however, are extremely romantic,
their beauty being much enhanced by the luxuriant
vegetation of these tropical regions — the long silky-green
leaf-blades of the banana tree, the variety of graceful
palms, and the endless diversity of strange foliage and
flowers. Of the primeval forest that once covered the
hills and slopes only a few clumps of the larger trees
have been preserved in the vicinity of the city. But the
landscape is still enlivened by the famous Tijuca Cascade,
which is formed by a torrent rising on the highest crest
of the Tijuca cliffs, and rushing over a rocky precipice
50 feet high. Some years ago an Act was passed
forbiddino; the further destruction of the forest trees on
the hill tops in the belief that the rainfall in the neigh-
bourhood of the city was decreasing by the rapid clearing
of the land. Thus the crests and slopes of the magnifi-
cent ranges in the rear of the bay have been preserved
in something like their pristine luxuriance.
580 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL
From Eio a short railway with extremely steep
gradients leads to the old German settlement of Fetrojoolis,
which stands on the slopes of the Organs range, 2634
feet above sea-level, and was the former summer residence
of the Imperial family. A superb prospect is here
enjoyed of the distant bay and of the lovely wooded
heights in the middle distance, diversified with foaming
torrents, cataracts, and waterfalls, grottos, crags of every
conceivable form, and magnificent trees of the richest
foliage and a thousand exquisite shapes.
In the great mining State of Minas Geraes the seat
of the provincial government was removed in 1894
from the old historical capital, Ouro Preto, at the foot
of Itacolumi, to Minas, or Bello Horizonte, which is now
connected by a branch 9 miles long with the Central
Kailway. Since the change the population of Ouro
Preto (" Black Gold," so called from the dark colour of
the neighbouring auriferous rocks) has fallen from 26,000
to about 14,000, while that of Bello Horizonte, till then
mere waste land, has risen from zero to 30,000 in 1899.
"A plentiful water supply has been brought from the
neighbouring mountains, broad streets and a public
garden have been laid out, and the whole town
is admirably liglited by electricity." ■^ The climate is
excellent, and drier than that of Ouro Preto, which had
the disadvantage of being built on several hills where
there was no room for expansion.
Nevertheless the transfer, which cost the State Govern-
ment about £1,000,000, is regretted by many, who in
the new " mushroom city " miss the picturesque situation
and the quaint old buildings, as well as the crowded
historical associations of the old capital. IVIoreover,
Ouro Preto stands in one of the richest mineral districts
^ H. D. Beaumont, Consular Beport, February 1899.
BRAZIL 581
in the world, the resources of which are still far from
exhausted. " In the very streets of the town gold is
still found in small quantities after heavy rain " (ib.) ;
from the neighbouring Gongo Secco Mine an English
Company has extracted over £1,000,000, while at no
great distance there are mountains of almost pure iron
still rmtouched. Farther north gold occurs associated
with diamonds, as indicated by the very name of the
old city of Diamantina on the western slope of Itambe.
Here diamonds were first discovered in 1725, although
a band of Paolistas had already founded the station
under the name of Tijuco before the close of the seven-
teenth century. From the same locality came the
famous Portugal crown diamond, the value and even
true character of which have never been ascertained.^
Between 1772 and 1843, the period of greatest activity,
the total yield was 1,355,000 carats, worth about
£2,500,000, irrespective of the contraband trade carried
on to a large extent in colonial times. In 1898 the
Boa Vista Company was formed in Paris to buy out the
garimpeiros, or small miners, and work this rich mineral
district systematically.
South of Minas Geraes plantations take the place
of the mining industries, and S. Paulo, capital of the
great coffee-growing State of like name, ranks already
as the second city in Brazil for population, and perhaps
the first for the public spirit and enterprise of its in-
haliitants. It lies not far from the coast on the inland
slope of the Serra do Mar, about the headwaters of the
Eio Tiete, which flows west to the Parana, and is
connected by a short railway with its seaport of Santos.
1 The "Braganza," as this stone has been christened, weighs 1680
carats, and if genuine would be worth £60,000,000, but is by many
supposed to be a white topaz (Streeter, Precious Stones and Gems).
582 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGliAPHY AND TRAVEL
S. Paulo is one of the oldest places in Brazil, the convent
of the Jesuits, now transformed to a High School, dating
from the year 1552. Yet it has a strangely modern
aspect with its long and busy thoroughfares lined with
handsome shops and warehouses, and lit by electricity,
its tramways and railways radiating in all directions,
its fine suburban quarters, and many imposing public
buildings, such as the Government Offices, the Cathedral
and Episcopal Palace, the Treasury, the Legislative
Chambers, and especially the really magnificent Palace
of Ypiranga, erected to commemorate the Declaration of
Independence. Thanks to its elevated position on the
plateau (2460 ft.) its relatively high latitude, good water,
and improved sanitary arrangements, S. Paulo is both
a pleasant and a healthy residence, where the large
European section of its inhabitants have found new and
congenial homes amid surroundings not greatly dissimilar
from those of the old country. Extensive drainage and
other works have also recently been undertaken to
improve the climate of Santos, and relieve it from the
reproach of being one of the worst fever dens in the
Xew World. In 1898 as much as 5,630,000 bags of
coffee were shipped at this place, while the total annual
exchanges now average £15,000,000.
Agricultural interests, including stock-breeding, are
also dominant in the three other southern states of
Parana, with its capital Curitiha, which, like S. Paulo,
lies on the landward slope of the Coast Ptange ; Santa
Catharina, whose capital, Desterro, on the island of Santa
Catharina, has recently been re-named Florianopolis ;
and Ptio Grande do Sul, whose capital, Forto Alegre, was
founded in 1742 by some Portuguese from the Azores
at the head of the Guahiba estuary, converging point of
all the land and water highwavs. Bio Grande, former
BRAZIL 583
capital of this state, stands on the Eio Grande emissary
of the Laguna dos Patos, not far from the Uruguay
frontier ; but it cannot reap the full benefit of this
advantageous position until the harbour works are
executed, by which it is proposed to improve its seaward
approaches. Meanwhile it is somewhat eclipsed both by
Porto Alegre and by Desterro, which latter is accessible
to vessels drawing 14 or 16 feet of water, and is also
much more pleasantly situated on an island noted for its
excellent climate.
Goyaz, capital of the State of like name, and Cuyaba,
present capital of Matto Grosso, await the development
of the interior to become even good-sized towns. Goyaz
was founded, without any regard for its future prospects,
but only as a mining station, in an auriferous district
on the Ptio Vermelho in the Upper Araguaya basin.
The climate, however, is good, and if little gold and few-
diamonds are now found in the neighbourhood, the
district grows a good wine, and an excellent tobacco,
the fiLino i^zcat^o, which commands the first price in
Brazil, and is vaunted by the natives as the finest in
the world.
Cuyaba occupies an important position near the head
of the Cuyaba affluent of the Paraguay, and consequently
close to the low divide between that river and the
Amazon basin. Like Goyaz, it was originally a mining
station, and is also favoured with an excellent climate.
To this circumstance Cuyaba owes the distinction of
having been chosen in 1820 as the seat of the pro-
vincial government instead of the old capital Villa
Bella, called also Matto Grosso, which was founded
in 1752 in a fever -stricken mineral district on the
Upper Guapore.
584 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
Natural Resources — Mining Industry
In Brazil mining operations have long ceased to lie
of much economic importance, and although manufactures
have in recent years been greatly stimulated by the higli
protective duties levied on foreign wares in the interest
of the local industries, the country still derives most of
its wealth from the land and water — forest produce,
plantations, small farming, stock-breeding, and fisheries.
The formerly productive gold-mines of Eio de Janeiro
and S. Paulo have been mostly abandoned, while those
of Goyaz are worked only by a few private persons or
small associations without capital or modern appliances.
Gold also occurs in many other districts, such as Matto
Grosso, Maranhao, Piauhy, Parana, Santa Catharina, and
Kio Grande do Sul, but is nowhere systematically mined
except in Minas Geraes, from which is obtained nearly
all the precious metal still exported. Between 1780
and 1898 Minas Geraes yielded £78,000,000, and the
whole of Brazil about £144,000,000 ; but the present
annual yield scarcely exceeds £200,000. Of the six
mines at work in Minas Geraes five belong to Enoiish
companies. The production of diamonds (see above) has
also greatly fallen off since the discovery of these gems
in South Africa. It fell for the whole of Brazil from
a quantity valued at £300,000 in 1867 to £40,000 in
1898. Associated with diamonds are several other
precious stones, such as topazes, garnets, amethysts, and
Ijeryls, but not emeralds, those formerly reputed as such
being a variety of tourmaline.
No serious attempt has yet been made to utilise the
rich deposits of the more useful metals — copper in Eio
Grande do Sul, lead and especially iron in Minas Geraes ;
magnetite in Parana and Santa Catharina. In the latter
BRAZIL 585
State and in Eio Grande do Sul there appear to be
extensive reservoirs of petroleum, which has recently
been tapped at one or two points.
Agricultural Prospects — Coffee Culture
The former exaggerated notions regarding the " bound-
less vegetable resources " of Brazil have been somewhat
modified, since it has been shown that most of the
campos, that is to say, about two-thirds of the whole land,
are scarcely arable, and in any case of little use for agri-
culture. It has also been pointed out that Brazil lacks
the two fertilising elements of the earth-worm, which is
ceaselessly ploughing ;ip and enriching the soil, and of a
winter season during which the land " sleeps and is
refreshed." In the dry months from June to September
the upland campos show vast spaces "covered with a
sparse vegetation, dried up and parched, the boughs and
branches all bare and leafless, and the soil baking in the
dry heat ; then the fallen leaves, dried hard and crisp,
are scattered and broken by the wind, and their elements
dissolve into gasses. It is only in the thick forests,
where the soil is naturally damp and moist, that these
sources of fertility are allowed to collect and enrich the
ground" (Wells, vol. ii. p. 356).
Nevertheless, there still remain immense areas of
fertile lands, which only await settlers and development
to supply half the globe with all kinds of valuable com-
modities. These lands are, moreover, conveniently situ-
ated on the Atlantic seaboard, that is, in the region 300
nv 400 miles broad which lies between the Amazon and
Plate estuaries, and comprises nearly a million square
miles, enjoying easy access to the outer world. Thanks
partly to the large percentage of freedmen, since the
586 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AXD TRAVEL
emancipation no longer bound to work, and partly to
the enervating effect of the climate on the descendants
of the vigorous early colonists, the old settlements in the
north have remained somewhat stationary, or even lost
ground, at least in the interior, as is also the case in the
mining districts of Goyaz and Matto Grosso. But in
the south the inflow of immigrants from Europe has
giA'en an extraordinary impulse to agricultural pursuits,
as shown by the mere fact that more than half of the
world's yield of coffee is now raised in S. Paulo and some
of the neighbouring States. Introduced from Guiana
early in the eighteenth century, coffee culture made
little progress till about 1840, when the yearly crop
exceeded 60,000 tons. Since then it has steadily
increased to 540,000 tons in 1899, when the quantity
exported was valued at £17,000,000.
Formerly Brazil also took the first place for the pro-
duction of cane-sugar ; but at present the plantations,
mainly confined to Pernambuco and Kio de Janeiro,
seldom yield more than about 200,000 tons, and of this
a large proportion is used for the distillation of cachaea,
an inferior kind of rum found in every Brazilian house-
hold, but not much appreciated by strangers.
The cultivation of cotton, which is grown especially
in Ceara and neighbouring states, received a great
impulse during the American War of Secession. Since
tlien it has been revived by the almost prohibitive duties
levied on foreign cotton goods, and there are at present
as many as 155 cotton-mills kept going by the local
yield. Cotton spinning and weaving, mostly confined to
the Southern States, is, at present, the most flourishing
manufacturing industry, employing (1899) as many as
200,000 hands, and producing plain but substantial
unsized textiles to the yearly value of over <£o,500,000.
BRAZIL 587
Tobacco, of uniformly fine quality, is grown chiefly in
Bahia and Goyaz, where the yearly crop averages 50,000
tons, valued at from £1,000,000 to £1,250,000. Of
cacao, also of prime quality, the annual yield exceeds 6000
tons; but the tea plant, which thrives well on the S.
Paulo plateau, is neglected for mate, of which 14,000 tons
are now annually exported, chiefly to Belgium.
Of strictly alimentary plants, raised mainly for local
consumption and cultivated in a somewhat primitive way
by the small farmers, the most important are rice, manioc,
black beans, maize, potatoes, and yams. The first three
are essential constituents of the national dish, feijoada,
to which is usually added came secca, or charqui, of
which there are two kinds, one from Argentina or Ptio
Grande do Sul, the other, of finer quality, from the
Obidos district, Amazonia. Of fruits, all generally of
excellent flavour, the most widely diffused are bananas
of two kinds, figs, and oranges, these last growing almost
wild, as in Paraguay.
Stock-Breeding — Forest Produce
Despite the vast extent of the grassy campos, stock-
breeding is relatively little developed, except in Eio
Grande do Sul. In the central provinces there are two
distinct breeds of cattle, which might be called " short-
horns " and " long-horns," some of the latter (in Minas
Geraes) with magnificent horns 5 and even 6 feet from
tip to tip. Both have been crossed with stock from
Jersey, and with the Indian zebu. Horses are generally
of inferior blood, and there are no ponies comparable to
the sturdy, docile, and sure-footed little Chilian breed.
Eeference has already been made to the endless variety
of natural products yielded by the Amazonian forests.
588 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
These certainly constitute a permanent source of the
national wealth, and rubber especially now forms a chief
item in the table of .yearly exports — £2,000,000 in 1898.
Thanks to the development of steam navigation on the
Amazon and its tributaries, this industry has made rapid
progress since 1840, when the annual yield scarcely
averaged 400 tons. In 1896 it exceeded 24,000 tons,
while the total yield between 1840 and 1899 has been
estimated at over 380,000 tons.
Railway Enterprise — Trade
But, for their full expansion all these industries
still await improved communications, and especially the
execution of several railway projects, which have been
planned either to supersede the wretched routes, often
mere tracks or bridle-paths across the plateaux, or else
to turn the cataracts barring access to the upper reaches
of such great navigable arteries as the Madeira, the Eio
jSTegro or the S. Francisco. Some of these projects,
which have been prepared by competent engineers and
are perfectly practicable, aim not merely at opening up
the Brazilian backwoods, but at giving the Andean States,
especially Peru and Bolivia, direct and easy access to the
European markets. They are thus of international con-
cern, and when carried out must make the Amazon one
of the great commercial highways of the world, while
conferring on Brazil itself a position of unrivalled import-
ance as the intermediary of the exchanges between both
sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
Meanwhile Brazil still lacks a uniform and continuous
railway system, altliough, since the completion of the
first line from Eio to Petropolis in 1856, as many as
8660 miles have been opened for traffic, and in 1900
BKAZIL 589
over 5000 miles were in process of construction. But
these lines, owned some by the State, some by private
companies, have not been constructed on a uniform plan,
or even with a uniform gauge. There are, however, two
considerable provincial networks, one radiating from Eio
and penetrating into Minas Geraes, the other starting
from Santos, and these are now connected by a line 370
miles long, which runs up the valley of the Parahiba do
Sul and crosses the water-parting down to S. Paulo in
the Parana basin. Elsewhere there are only a few
isolated lines, or else little detached systems, such as
those branching in several directions from Pernambuco,
or ramifying round Bahia Bay. There is, however, some
prospect of a transcontinental trunk line being soon
undertaken to connect the Brazilian coast systems with
those of the Pacific seaboard over the Bolivian plateau.
Meanwhile a general increase of wealth and material
prosperity is attested by the annual trade returns, which,
despite heavy protective duties on imported wares,
amoimting in some instances to 80, 100, and even 120
per cent, show a steady increase from year to year.
Thus the total imports rose from about £7,000,000 in
1885 to over £22,000,000 in 1899, and the exports
from £8,000,000 to £27,000,000 in the same period.
In the latter year the British imports exceeded
£5,000,000, while the exports to Great Britain fell
short of £4,000,000. The chief items of export are
coffee, rubber, tobacco, hides, and cocoa, the first-named
being very much more than all the rest together.
Government — Education — Finance — Armaments
The present constitution, in virtue of which the
" Brazilian Empire " became the " United States of
590 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TPtAVEL
Brazil" (see p. 486), was adopted by the National
Congress in February 1891. It provides for a legis-
lative assembly, consisting of a Senate and Chamber of
Deputies, both paid and boih chosen by direct vote, the
Senators for nine years, one-third retiring by rotation
every three years, the Deputies for three years in the
proportion of one to every 70,000 of the population, as
shown by each recurrent decennial census, but so that
each State shall have at least four representatives. By
this arrangement the Lower House comprises at present
(1899) 212 members, while the Senators are permanently
fixed at 63, that is to say, three for each State and for
the Federal district. The States themselves, which
correspond in name and extent with the old historical
provinces, are virtually so many autonomous republics,
enjoying all the privileges of self-government which do
not clash with those of the Commonwealth. Thus they
have each its own Congress of two houses, which manages
all local affairs without interference from the Federal
Government, except for defence, maintenance of order, the
execution of the Federal laws and fiscal arrangements in
such matters as import duties, stamps, rates of postage,
and bank-note circulation. Even the export duties are
controlled by the provincial parliaments, and applied to
local administrative purposes.
The executive functions are entrusted to a President,
who must be a native of Brazil and over thirty-five
years of age, and is elected with a Vice-President for
four years by direct popular vote. He is not re-eligible
for the next ensuing term, but enjoys extensive powers,
including the appointment and dismissal of the six
ministers or Secretaries of State (War, Navy, Foreign
Affairs, Finance, Justice with Public Instruction, and
Industry with Board of AVorks), the supreme command
BRAZIL 591
of the army and navy, and (within certain limits) the
right to declare war and make peace.
The franchise is practically universal for all citizens
over twenty years of age, the only exceptions being
mendicants, illiterates, soldiers under the flag, and monks
under vows of obedience.
Catholicism, formerly the State religion, was disestab-
lished by the Constitution, which proclaimed the absolute
freedom and equality of all forms of religion. Provision,
however, is made by the State for the maintenance of
the existing clergy of the Catholic Church, which com-
prises the whole of the settled population, except about
160,000 Protestants and 10,000 Jews and sundries.
In respect of education, which appears to be nowhere
compulsory, Brazil stands at a very low level, about 84
per cent of the population being returned as absolutely
unlettered. At the same time the returns under this
head are extremely defective, and in many cases alto-
gether unprocurable. Thus the central department has
constantly to complain that it can get no information
from the States, which partly control secondary, and
have the exclusive management of primary education,
limited only by the conditions required under the Con-
stitution that primary instruction be gratuitous, and
that all branches be under lay management. On the
other hand the higher education is administered by the
central government, which maintains two schools of
medicine, four of law, four military, one naval, one of
mines, and a polytechnic, besides the Lyceum of Arts and
Trades, and a school of astronomy and engineering
connected with the observatory at Ptio.
The financial troubles of Brazil may be said to have
begun with the Paraguayan war, wdiich cost her
£60,000,000. Since then the yearly Budget has
592 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
generally shown a deficit, sometimes of two or three
millions. Nevertheless she has never repudiated her
debts, or failed to meet her foreign engagements, and as
her assets — the national resources — are great, her credit
still stands high in the money markets of the world.
It would perhaps stand higher, were she to reduce
her armaments, which seem to be in excess of her
legitimate needs, and continue to absorb an undue
proportion of the national revenues. A standing army
of nearly 30,000 men, besides a gendarmerie of over
20,000, and a navy of four ironclads, five cruisers, six
monitors for coast defence, several torpedoes and gun-
boats are maintained at a cost of nearly £2,000,000,
while the public debt is approaching £200,000,000.
and the yearly deficit exceeded £1,000,000 in 1898.
To /ace page 592.
35
Sfan/rrdi Stmg^ iEKai? Zffr<dari
CHAPTEE XVI
THE FALKLAND ISLANDS AND SOUTH GEORGIA
The soundings taken by the Belgian Antarctic Expedi-
tion of 1898-99 fully confirm the results of previous
surveys, tending to show that the continental plateau
falls beyond Fuegia rapidly southwards in the direction
of the Shetlands and Graham's Land, but is continued
from South Patagonia and Staten Island by the so-called
Burdivood Bank eastwards in the direction of the Fall^:-
lands and South Georgia. Thus is confirmed, if con-
firmation were needed, the assumption that both of
these outlying British possessions are not oceanic lands
upheaved by igneous agencies, of which there are no
traces, but at one time formed part either of South
America or of the Austral Continent, the belief in which
has been revived by recent geological and biological
observation. Support is in fact lent by many circum-
stances to the generally accepted view that the Andean
system, which now terminates abruptly at Staten Island,
reappears in the Falkland Geoup, which in its main
physical features presents a close resemblance to the
Fuegian Archipelago. It consists of two large masses,
the West and Bast Falkland, fringed by clusters of about
a hundred reefs, rocks, and islets, and divided by the
vol. I 2 Q
o94 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAl'HY AND TRAVEL
narrow and shallow Falkland Sound into two nearly
equal sections, with a total area of 6500 square miles.-'
As in Fuegia, Loth of the large islands are indented
by numerous fjord-like inlets, which are all disposed in
the same direction from north-west to south-east, and
are almost certainly of glacial origin. The ranges of
low hills also have the same general trend, and are
confined to the northern parts, where they attain their
greatest elevation in Mount Adam 2325 feet hi^h.
Like most marine groups, the Falklands, which lie
340 miles east of Magellan Strait, enjoy a more equable
and temperate climate tljan might be expected from
their position between 51" and 53° S. lat. The glass
may for a short time fall as low as 20° or even 15°
Fahr. in severe winters, but it seldom rises above 76",
the mean for the year lying between 45° and 50°. The
Archipelago is, moreover, one of the healthiest places in
the whole world, the birth-rate rising to 28 or 30, while
the mortality scarcely exceeds 7 or 8 per thousand.
But it is not a pleasant place of residence, being both
damp and foggy, and exposed to high gales, wliich pre-
vail at all times, and are said occasionally to blow with
such violence as to uproot the very cabbages of the
kitchen-gardens, and scatter them like chaff over the
land. Certain it is, that despite an aljundant rainfall
and a suitable soil, no trees can grow in the islands, so
that the vegetation is mainly herbaceous. Large tracts
are covered witli the so-called " tussock-grass " {Dactylis
ca'spitosa), which grows in tufts five or six feet high, and
both as green fodder and as hay is unsurpassed as food
for cattle, sheep, and horses. Even the pigs will grub
up and greedily devour the succulent roots. Hence
these animals are not encouraged by the settlers, who
1 East Falkland, 3000 ; West Falkland, 2300 ; islets, 1200.
THE FALKLAND ISLANDS AND SOUTH GEORGIA 595
devote their attention chiefly to sheep-fanning for the
sake of the wool, which forms the staple export of the
colony. In recent years they have also taken up the
frozen-meat industry, for which the horned cattle supply
an excellent raw material. It is noteworthy that these
animals, sprung from some oxen let loose on the islands
by the French navigator, Bougainville, in 1764, have
considerably increased in size, while the horses have on
the contrary grown smaller. The native fauna is repre-
sented chiefly by penguins, which resort to the Archi-
pelago in such multitudes that the English governor has
been nicknamed " King of the Penguins."
First sighted by Davis in 1592, and again visited in
1594 by Hawkins, who named them the "Maiden
Islands " in honour of Queen Elizabeth, the Falklands
received their present designation in 1689 from Strong,
in compliment to his friend and patron. Lord Falkland.
Then they were neglected till about the time of Bougain-
ville's visit, when the Spaniards established a military
post at a point already occupied by a few English pioneers,
whom they treated in a somewhat high-handed way.
This brought on the scene a squadron under Admiral
Byron, who, after reinstating the dispossessed settlers,
founded the station of Egmont, on the bay of like name.
But the port was not maintained, and in 1828 Argen-
tina, as heir to the rights of Spain, made a concession of
the group to Louis Varnet, a French stock-breeder. His
claims, however, were not recognised by the powers, and
when he attempted to enforce them by levying taxes
on some North American whalers, his settlement was
destroyed by a United States man-of-war in 1831. Two
years afterwards England, despite the protests of Argen-
tina, resumed possession of the group, and chose as the
centre of administration the excellent harbour of Port
1895.
1897.
£12,518
£12,970
13,159
13,636
71,826
63,286
122,988
125,123
596 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL
Stanley on the east side of the eastern island. The
settlers, who in 1897 numbered 2050, all but 125 of
British origin, have taken part in the management of
local affairs since 1892, when the Falklands became a
Crown Colony under a Governor assisted by an executive
and a legislative council. From the subjoined compara-
tive table of statistics for recent years, the colony, while
enjoying a fair measure of prosperity, does not appear to
be progressing, possibly because the exports being ex-
clusively agricultural — wool, hides and skins, tallow,
etc., — necessarily fluctuate with the demands of the
English markets : —
1893.
Revenue .... £11,450
Expenditure . . . 11,388
Imports .... 71,126
Exports .... 134,872
Population (1891), 1798 ; (1897), 2050.
Acres under pasturage (1897), 2,325,154.
Live stock (1897) : sheep, 732,000 ; cattle, 7340 ; horses, 2758.
Shipping (1897) : 42 vessels of 54,144 tons entered.
Savings Bank deposits (1897), £38,270.
South Georgia, which Lies 1250 miles east of Fuegia,
and has an area of 1600 square miles, is beyond all
doubt a surviving fragment of some now vanished con-
tinental land. Apart from a few rocky islets, it con-
sists of a single island disposed in the same direction
from north-west to south-east as the Falkland hills and
fjords, but attaining a far greater elevation. Its very
old formations — gneiss and argillaceous schists, showing
no traces of fossils — tower far above the snow-line,
which in these high latitudes (54° to 55° S.) falls to
about 2000 feet above sea-level. Some of the snowy
peaks range from 6000 to 8000 feet, and their slopes
are fui-rowed by deep gorges filled with glacial streams
which here and there descend to sea-level. The Eoss
e.r\i-'
THE FALKLAND ISLANDS AND SOUTH GEOKGIA 59
glacier even sends a contingent of icebergs across Eojal
Bay to join the cortege of these glittering masses drift-
ing up from the Antarctic waters. It was at Eoyal
Bay, on the south-east side of the island, that was
stationed the German expedition sent out to observe the
transit of Venus in 1882. Except by such casual
visitors, whalers, or explorers. South Georgia has never
been occupied, having hitherto failed to attract any
permanent settlers, although well suited for sheep or
cattle farming, being covered with tussock-grass up to
a height of about 1000 feet above the sea. But the
climate is damp, foggy, and cold, snow falling at times,
even in February, the warmest month in the year. From
observations taken in Koyal Bay, the mean tempera-
ture scarcely averages more than 34° or 35° Fahr., and
seldom rises above 66°, but falls in winter as low as 9°
or 10°. Yet the German naturalists were able to coUect
as many as thirteen flowering plants, twelve of which
were common to the Falklands and Fuegia, while one
belonged to the flora of distant New Zealand. Thus are
daily brought to light fresh facts pointing at the former
existence of an Austral continent affording perhaps
nearly continuous land round a great part of the globe in
late Secondary or early Tertiary times.
INDEX
Abipous, 378
Abrolhos Islands, 495
Acay hills, 334, 451
Achataylma, Mount, 191
Aconcagua, Mount, 17, 276, 278, 336
Aconquija Peak, 334
Administration, colonial, 66
Agua Caliente, 7, 86
Aguarico river, 168
Agulhas Negras, 498
Ahuishiris, 177
Aimores Mountains, 32
Aiseu, 7, 271, 295
Ak-kapana, 49 •
Alacalufs, 307
Alausi, 180
Alcantara, 569
Alegre, Mount, 12
river, 453
Allamaclie river, 244
Alta Plauicie Central, 242
Altar, Mount, 162
Alto Pereiro Mountains, 119
Amajuacas, 46
Amanibay Mountains, 447, 449
Amarga, lagoon, 351
Amaruniayo river, 234
Amazon river, 11, 58, 195, 513
Ambato, 180
Ancon, 48, 217
Ancud, 322
Andes, Cordillera de los, 16 sq.
of Bolivia, 236
of Cliili, 273, 276
of Colombia, 116
of Peru, 189
Angostura, 90, 109, 482
Ante-Cordillera, 334
Antioquia, 149
Antis, 214
Antofagasta, 230, 312
Antofalla Mountain, 277
Antuco, Mount, 284
Apiacas, 555
Apolobamba Mountains, 237
Apiire river, 78, 82, 88
Apurimac river, 199
Aquidaban river, 455
Aquiry river, 519
Aracaju, 572
Aragua valley, 86
Araguaya rivei', 523
Arauca river, 88
Araucanians, 304
Arawaks, 554
Arequipa, 224
Argentina, 328 sq.
climate, flora, fauna, 360
Cordilleras, 333
history, prospects, 412
hydrography, 344
inhabitants, 374
lake, 357
Pampas, 339
Patagonian Plateau, 311
provinces, 329
topography, 391
Arica, 187, 273
Aroa, 108
Aropazado channel, 286
Arrancaplumas, 124, 144
Artigas, 437
Ascope, 216
Ataeania Desert, 229
Atores, 556
Atrato river, 2, 126
600
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Atuel river, 352
Atures rapids, 89
Asuncion, 478
Aucas, 176, 304
Aullagas, Lake, 202. 242
Aves Island, 75
Ayacuclio, 222
Aymaras, 48, 206
Azufral Peak, 118
Azupe de Copiapo Mountain, 277
Babalioyo river, 166
Bacatd, 141
Bahia, 572
Bahia Negra river, 455
Bakairi, 555
Balueles Mountains, 359
Bauanal Island, 524
Banda Oriental, 433
Barcelona, 108
Baria river, 87
Barquisimeto, 108
Barranquerita, 455
Barranquilla, 126, 146
Baudos, 138
Beagle Channel, 270, 276, 289
Bebedero Lake, 351
Belem, 567
Beni river, 234, 244
Bermejo river, 235, 347, 351
Betoyes, 138
" Biru " river, 56
Boanes, 429
Bobonaza river, 167
Boca de Ganales, 286
Bodadahue river, 29 '>
Bogota, 141
Bolivar, 90, 108
Bolivia, Department, 235
climate, flora, fauna, 249
CordQleras, 236
history, 258
hydrography, 242
inhabitants, 254
resources, 265
topography, 259
Yungas zone, 241
Bolsones, 195
Bonaventura, 2
Bonete Mountain, 277, 335
Bordoncillo Mountain, 118
Bororos, 386
Botocudos, 13, 32, 555, 560
Boyaca, 145
Bravard, Mount, 282
Brazil, Name of, 52
climate, 531
empire and republic, 68
ethnical elements, 489
flora, fauna, 537
hydrography, 513
inhabitants, 552
Negroes in, 63
physical features, 493
resources, 584
settlement of, 61
states, 488
topography, 562
uplands, 18
Brecknock Peninsula, 289
Brunswick Peninsula, 288, 292
Buenaventura, 147
Buenos Ayres, 405
lake, 357
Bulnes, 320
Burdwood Bank, 593
Butaco Pass, 336
Caballococha, Lake, 201
Cacha, 181
Cachi hills, 334
Cachiri Peak, 117
Caicara, 88
Cajamarca, 217
Calafquen, Lake, 276, 297
Calchaquis, 377, 378
Caldera, 313
Calen Inlet, 286
Cali, 147
Callao, 218
Campanario Peak, 283
Campanero Mountain, 118
Campas, 214
Campos, 501, 538
dos Parexis, 501
Canaburi river, 87
Candarave ^lountain, 191
Candelaria, 149
Canelos, 176
Cape Orange, 494
Branco, 494
do Norte, 494
Dungeness, 270
Espiritu Santo, 270
INDEX
601
Cape Frio, 494
Froward, 277
Horn, 56, 290
Pillar, 287
Kaso, 494
S. Agostinho, 494
S. Koque, 4, 487
S. Thome, 494
Carabaya Mountains, 190, 237
Carabobo, 103
Caracas, 81, 106
Caracoles Mountain, 274
Caras, 173
Caraz, 217
Carcararia river, 349
Carchi river, 128
Cariaco Mountains, 79
Gulf, 79
Carib Mountains, 78
natives, 554
Caribbean Sea, 2
Carizones, 138
Carmen, 410
Carmen- Alto, 192
Carrizal Bajo, 313
Cartagena, 146
Cassiquiare river, 11, 80, 87
Castrovireina, 225
Catamarca, 397
Catatubo river, 81, 85
Catios, 138
Cauca river, 125
Caviana Island, 495
Cayari river, 520
CeiTO Pintado, 89, 117
de Cuatro Hermanos, 234
de Hualean, 190
de Huandoy, 190
de Huascan, 190
de las Minas, 337
de los Muertos, 89
de Pasco, 190, 221
de Potosi, 240, 263
de Yerba Buena, 337
Mina, 117
Terra, 120
Tunari, 240
Cesar river, 121
Chacabuco, 275, 281
Chachani Mountain, 191
Chambo river, 167
Champaqui Peak, 337
Chauarcillo, 313
Cbancas, 212
Chancay, 217
Chanchamayo, 221
Chani Mountains, 334
Ohapada Diamantina, 500
das Mangabeiras, 500
Chapadas, 501
Chapari river, 246
Charruas, 429
Chepen, 217
Chibchas, 48, 135
Chicama, 216
Cbicamoclio river, 125
Chigurrado Peak, 120
Chiles Peak, 118
Chili, 269 sq.
archipelagoes, 285
central plain, 273
climate, flora, fauna, 297
Cordilleras, 274
hydrography, 294
inhabitants, 304
provinces, 272
resources, 323
topography, 311
Chilian Mountain, 284
Chiloe Islands, 6, 285
Chimbo, 182
river, 159, 166
Chimborazo Mountain, 17, 158, 161
Chimbote, 217
Chimore river, 246
Chimus, 48, 206
Chinacocha, Lake, 201
Chincha Islands, 225, 227
Chinchas, 212
Chinchaycocha, Lake, 199, 201
Chipicani Peak, 237, 27 1
Chiquinquira, 145
Chiquitos, 47, 255
Mountains, 241
Chiriguanos, 257, 379
Choco Mountains, 120
Chocos, 138
Chololo Peak, 190
Chonos Islands, 6, 285
Chorolque Peak, 240
Chos-Malal, 410
Chubut river, 344, 356
Chuelches, 32
Chunchos, 214
602
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
Chuquicara river, 200
Cisne river, 295
Ciudad de Cura, 107
Bolivar, 108
Clarence Island, 290
Coast Range, Bolivia, 237
Brazil, 423, 496
Chili, 273
Venezuela, 79
Coca river, 167
Cochabamba Knot, 210
Cordillera, 240
town, 262
Cockburn Channel, 290
Cocomas, 555
Coeonucos Mountains, 119
natives, 134
Cocos Islands, 7
Cocui Mountains, 116
Cojedes river, 78
Colastine, 393
Collas, 48, 208
Colliguai Mountain, 275
Colombia, 113 sq.
climate, 129
flora, fauna, 131
history, 149
hydrograj)hy, 121
inhabitants, 134
natural resources, 152
physical features, 116
table of departments, 1
topography, 140
Colon, 392
Colonia, 433, 438
Colorado river, 6, 351
Coluhuape, Lake, 357
Coluna Peak, 78
Combarbala, 314
Concepcion, 320, 391
Concha Peak, 78
Concordia, 392
Conococha, Lal;e, 200
Copiapo Mountain, 277
town, 313
Corcovado river, 294
Cordilheira dos Parexis, 501
Geral, 501
Cor'lillera Negra, 189
Central, 118
de Chila, 198
de Cochabamba, 240
Cordillera de la Silla, 79
de los Andes, 16 sq.
de los Mosetenes, 241
del Tigre, 335
Eastern, 116
Nevada, 189
of Argentina and Patagonia, 333
Quindio, 118
Real (Bolivia), 237
Eelada, 275
Royal, 157
Western (Chili), 274
Western (Colombia), 120
Cordoba, 402
Coro, 108
Coronel, 321
Coro -Pun a Mountain, 191
Corrientes river, 347
t«wn, 392
Cotocayes river, 244
Cotbpaxi Mountain, 163
Co.xilha Grande, 497
Crocker Peninsula, 292
Crucero Alto, 222
Cruz de Piedra Pass, 401
Cubagua Island, 75
Cuchillas Hills, 421
Cuchimano Mountain, 81
Cuchivero river, 81
Cuenca, 180
Culenta, 182
Cumana Mountains, 79
town, 108
Cumbal Peak, 118
Cumbre Pass, 281
Cunas, 138
Cundinamarca, 129
Curarai river, 167
Curico, 320
Curitiba, 582
Custenaiis, 556
Cuyaba river, 453
town, 583
Cuzco, 44, 223
mountain, 240
Darwin Mountain, 277, 291
Sound, 289
Daule river, 166
Dawson Island, 290
Decabezado Peak, 2S3
Desaguadero (Peru), 202
INDEX
603
Desaguadero (Argentina), 351
Desire river, 356
Desolation Island, 287, 290
Despoblados, 195
Desterro, 582
Diamante rivei-, 352
Dickson, Lake, 360
Doce river, 529
Duido Mountain, 81
Dulce river, 348
Duran, 182
Diirazno, 440
Easter Island, 293
Ecuador, 154 sq.
climate, 168
tlora, fauna, 170
Highlands, 157
history, 178
hydrography, 165
inhabitants, 173
provinces of, 155
topography, 180
resources, 182
volcanoes, 159
Egmont, 595
El Carmen, 355
El Dorado, 57, 80, 129
Elizabeth Island, 275
Encabellados, 138
Ene river, 199
English Narrows, 286
Ensenada, 408
Esmeraldas river, 166
Esperanza, 393
Espigao das Vertentes, 499
Falkland Islands, 6, 593
Sound. 594
Fallos Channel, 286
Famatina Mountains, 334
Fernando Noronha Island, 7, 495
Flores Island, 436
Florianopolis, 582
Formosa, Lake, 523
Fortaleza, 569
Francois, Mount, 291
Fray'Bentos, 439
Frayle Muerto, 395
F'taleufii river, 353
Fuegians, 307
Fuerte del Apa, 447
Funza river, 124
Fuquene, Lake, 128
Furo Uraria, 517
Galapagos Islands, 7, 184
Gallegos river, 345, 356
town, 410
Gauchos, 381, 430
Gennakens, 377
Georgia Island, 7
Ges Indians, 555
Girardot, 143
Goajira Penirs, 53
Goajiros, 138
Golfo Nuevo, 411
Golondrina river, 295
Gordon Island, 290
Goyaz, 583
Granadas hills, 334
Gran Chaco, 339, 3G7
Guachipas river, 348
Guadalupe, 217
Mountain, 240
Guaharibos, 101
Giiaicas, 101
Guaicurus, 379
Guainia river, 88
Guaitara river, 128
Guajara Falls, 520
Guallabamba river, 166
Gualeguay, 392
Gualeguaychu, 392
Gualletue, Lake, 296
Guanacache lagoon, 351
Guanape Island, 228
Guanos, 134, 556
Guapay river, 245
Guapore river, 234, 246, 519
Guarani, 376, 473, 554
Guarayos, 555
Guatavita, Lake, 129
Guaviare river, 88
Guayaquil, 181
Guayas river, 158, 165
Guayra Falls, 447, 458
Gulf of Darien, 1, 6, 16
Ancud, 285
Cariaco, 79
Corcovado, 276
Guayaquil, 6
Oraba, 1
Panama, 56
604
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL
Gulf of Paria, 91, 92
Penas, 276, 286
Venezuela, 6
Hanover Island, 286
Higueritas, 438
Honda, 124, 144
Horqueta Peak, 117
Hoste Island, 290
Huacas, 208
Huachacocha, Lake, 201
Huachipayiis, 215
Huallaga river, 195, 200
Huallatiri Peak, 274
Huancas, 212
Huanchaca, 259
Huanche, Lake, 276, 297
Huanillo Island, 228
Huantajaya, 312
Huaraz river, 189, 200
Huascacocha, Lake, 201
Huaucho, 217
Huaura, 217
Huaylas, 217
Huaylillas Peak, 190
Huemules river, 295
Hnila Peak, 119
Huraaita, 481
Hunsa, 145
Ibera lagoon, 461
Ibicuy Guazu river, 423
lea, 225
river, 168
Icutn, Mount, 19, 81
I-Guazu river, 460
Igurey river, 460
lUampu Mountain, 238
Illapel, 314
lUimani Mountain, 238
Ho, 226
Inambari river, 244
Ineas, 48, 210
Bridge, 128
Indios Bravos. 214, 552
Mansos, 214, 552
Inland Sea, South America, 10
Iquique, 312
Iquitos, 176
Ita, 481
Itacolumi, 499
Itambe Peak, 499
Itaparica Island, 495
Itapiru, 482
Itapua, 481
Itatia Peak, 19
Itatiaya Peak, 498
Itenes river, 234, 246, 519
Jacuhy river, 530
Jauja river, 199
Jauru river, 453
Javari river, 200, 518
Jequitinhonha river, 529
Jesuit Sound, 286
Jivaros, 176
Joannes Island, 495
Juan Fernandez Island, 7, 293
Jujuy, 395
river, 455
Juncal Mountain, 281
Junin river, 199
de los Andes, 410
Juramento river, 348
Jurua river, 518
Juruena river, 522
Jutahy river, 518
Karayas, 555
Kayapos, 555
King Charles South Land, 290, 338
King William Land, 292
Kukenam Mountain, 509
Laca Ahuira, 243
Lagoa Santa, caves, 31
dos Patos, 497, 530
Grande, 524
La Guaira, 101, 106
La Guayra, 459
Laguna Negra, 296
Lambare, 482
La Merced, 355
La Noria, 312
La Paz, 260
river, 244
La Plata, 408
estuary, 54, 349
Rio de, 54, 349
Las Heras river, 295
Last Hope Inlet, 359
Las Yeguas, 144, 283
Latacunga, 180
Lauricocha, Lake, 197
INDEX
605
Lemaii-e Strait, 57, 338
Lengua general, 37, 156
Leona river, 358
Licancaur Mountain, 234
Lima, 218
Limay river, 353
Linares, 320
Lingoa geral, 36, 15G, 474
Lipez Peak, 240
desert, 244
Llaillai, 320
Llanos, 82
scenery of, 83
Llanquilhue, Lake, 276, 297
Llullayacu Mountain, 277
Lobillo Island, 228
Loja Mountains, 157
town, 180
Londonderry Passage, 289
Longavi Peak, 283
Los Patos Pass, 281
Lota, 321
Luque, 480
Lules, 378
Macabi Island, 228
Maceio, 572
Macus, 45
Madeira river, 234, 519
Madidi river, 244
Madre de Dios river, 244
Maganque, 149
Magdalena river, 122
delta, 125
Magellan Strait, 270, 276, 287
Malbarco, Lake, 353
Maldonado, 437
Malpelo Island, 7
Mamore river, 234, 245
Manaos, 525, 567
natives, 556
Manitsawas, 555
Manizales, 147
-Manrique Peak, 335
Manseriche gorge, 12, 197
Mantaro river, 199
Maracai, 107
Maracaibo, 53, 81, 108
Lake, 85
Marajo Island, 53, 495
Mar ail on river, 195
Maravilla Lake, 360
Mar Chiquita, 349
Margarita Island, 75
Marombas river, 423
Martin Vaz Island, 495
Mas a Fuera Island, 7, 293
Mas a Tierra Island, 294
Matacos, 379
Matto Grosso, 583
Maule river, 44
Maullin, 322
Mauri river, 234
Maypu Mountain, 336
Maypures Rapids, 89
natives, 101, 556
Mayro, 196
Mazanes, 176
Mbaracayu Mountains, 447, 449
Mbayas, 379
Medanos, 84
Medellin, 147
Mehinakus, 556
Mendoza, 398
Mercedario Mountain. 277, 278
Merida, 108
Mesa Nevada de Herveo, 119
Messier Channel, 286
Mestizo terminolgy, 64
Meta river, 88
Mexiana Island, 495
Michaga Peak, 240
Minas, 437, 580
Geraes, 499
Minuanos, 429
Miraflores Mountains, 116
Miranda river, 454
Miranhas, 138, 556, 560
Mirim, lagoon, 422, 530
Misti Mountain, 191
Mitues, 138
Mochila basin, 85
Mocovis, 378
Mojos Lake, 11
depression, 247
natives, 254
Molina, 320
Mollendo, 222
Montafla, la, 168, 193
Monte Video, 433
Moquegua, 226
Moraleda Clianuel, 285
Mundrucus, 555, 560
Murrucucu Mountains, 120
606
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Musters, Lake, 357
Muysoas, 48, 135
Nahuelbuta Mountains, 275
Nahuelhuapi, Lake, 353
Nahuquas, 555
Naiguata Peak, 79
Napo river, 167
Nare river, 125
NavariD Island, 290
Navarro Mountain, 281
Negra Mountains, 116
Negro river (Patagonia), 352
(Brazil), 524
(Uruguay), 423
Negroes, Brazil, 561
Neiva river, 124
town, 144
Nelson Strait, 276
Neuquen river, 353, 401
Nevado Peak, 117
Nico Perez, 437
Nictheroy, 575
Noanamas, 138
Noguez Hill, 455
Norqiiin, 410
Nneva Zamora, 108
Nutabi, 134
Obidos, Narrows, 521
Obstruction Sound, 292
Ocana, 103, 145
Oeiras, 570
Ofqui Isthmus, 285
Olinden river, 455
Omaguas, 555
Ornate Mountain, 191
Onas, 307
Oran, 396
Orcacoclia, Lake, 201
Orchilla Island, 35
Orejones, 138
Organs Mountains, 19, 497
Orinoco river, 11, 53, 87
delta, 53, 90
sceuery, 91
Orococha, Lake, 201
Oroya, 221
Oruro, 259
Osorno Mountain, 284
Osos Mountains, 120
Otomacos, 101
Otway Water, 292
Ouro'Preto, 499, 580
Ovalle, 314
Oyapok river, 487
Pacarainia Mountains, 19
Paccaritainbo, 211
Pachachaca river, 199
Pacheco, 234
Pachitea river, 196
Pacific Range (Ecuador), 158
Paezes, 138
Paito river, 86
Pajonal Mountains, 278
Palena river, 295
Pampa de Emjieza, 243
de Coipara, 243
Pampas, 277, 339
Indians, 376, 381
river, 199
Pampean Sea, 5, 11, 13
Panama, Gulf of, 56
Isthmus of, 56
Pan de Azucar Peak, 117
Pao river, 86
Para, 567
river, 515
Paraderos, 21
Paraguay, 446 sq.
climate, flora, fauna, 4(12
history, 482
inhabitants, 462
relief, hydrography, 448
river, 234, 452
topography, 478
Paranullo Mountain, 120
Parana river, 11, 344, 349, 451
port, 392
Paranahiba river, 457
do Norte river, 529
town, 570
Paranapanema river, 459
Paranatinga river, 523
Parapiti river, 247
Pardo river, 529
Paria Mountains, 79
Parima Lake, 80
Parimos, 78
de Frontino Citara, 120
Parinacota Peak, 274
Parral, 320
Pasambio river, 119
INDEX
607
Paso de los Toros, 439
Pastasa river, 158, 166
Pasto Grande, 334
moiiutain, 118, 157
Patagonian natives, 378, 384
Plateau, 342
Patate river, 167
Patia river, 122, 128
Paucartambo river, 198
Paulistas, 490
Paulo Aftonso Falls, 528
Paute river, 158
Pauyarini river, 519
Payaguas, 472
Paychue, Lake, 297
Payen Mountain, 336
Payne Mountain, 360
Paysandu, 439
Pehuelches, 381
Pelotas river, 423, 460
Penco, 320
Peperi Guazu river, 423
Perene river, 199
Pernambuco, 570
Perineos Mountains, 501
Peru, climate, 202
departments, 187
flora, fauna, 204
hydrography, 195
inhabitants, 206
physical features, 188
resources, 227
topography, 216
volcanos, scenery, 191
Peteroa Peak, 283
Petorca, 314
Petropolis, 580
Piajes, 138
Pic de Paris, 238
Pietras Pintadas, 47
Pilaya river, 248
Pilcomayo river, 234, 248
Piojes, 176, 177
Piray river, 246
Pisagua, 312
Pisco, 225
river, 225
Planchon Pass, 401
Plata, Rio, 54, 349
estuary, 54, 349
Pollera Mountain, 281
Pomarape Peak, 274
Popayan, 147
Porongos morass, 349
Port Desiie, 410
Port Madryn, 410
Porto Alegre, 530, 582
Porto Seguro, 55
Port Stanley, 595, 596
Portuguesa river, 78
Potosi, 262
Preto river, 527
Puelo river, 295
Puerto Bermejo, 348
Puerto Cabello, 101, 107
Puerto Montt, 322
Pulperia river, 199
Punta Arenas, 293, 322
Puna, the, 193
Puno, 222
Purace Mountain, 119
Purus river, 518
Putumayo river, 168, 197
Quebradas, 200
Queen Adelaide Island, 286
Queluz, 526
Querandi, 377
Quichuas, 48, 206, 210
Quillabamba river, 198
Quillota, 317
Quilmes, 378
Quinaniari, 120
Quindio Mountain, 118
Pass, 119
Quito, 180
Quitus, 173
Qujos, 176
Raucheria river, 121
Ranco, Lake, 276, 297
Ranqueles, 377
Raspadura Gorge, 127
Rawson, 411
Recuay, 217
Rimac river, 218
Riobamba, 180
Rio de Barrancas, 352
Rjo de Janeiro, 575
Rio de los Tempanos, 285
Kio del Pasaje, 348
Rio das Velhas, 526
Rio Grande (Argentina), 352
Bolivia, 215
608
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL
Rio Grande (Brazil), 527, 582
del Estero, 397
Rioja, 398
Rios Primero, Segundo, Tercero,
Cuarto, Quinto, 349
Rivadavia, 314
Rocha, 437
Rogaguado lagoon, 247
Roraima Mountain, 509
Rosario, 393
Royal Bay, 596
Ruiz Mountain, 119
Rupanco, Lake, 297
Sajama Peak, 237
Saladillo Lagoon, 349
Salado river, 347, 351
Salaverri, 216
Sala-y-Gomez Island, 293
Salto, 396, 439
Grande, 459
Peak, 334
Sambaqui, 21
Sanapanas, 472
S. Ambrosio Island, 7, 293
S. Carlos, 320
S. Diego, Cape, 291
S. Estevan inlet, 285
S. Felipe, 108. 320
S. Feliz Island, 7, 293
S. Fernando Peak, 283
S. Francisco river, 18, 526
S. Jeronimo Mountains, 120
S. Jose de Maipu Peak, 283
S. Jose, town, 392
river, 422
S. Juan, 401
river, 2, 122, 126
S. Julian, 410
S. Luis, 402
S. Luiz de Maranbao, 569
S. Marcos Bay, 569
S. Martin, Lake, 357
town, 392
S. Miguel river, 198
S. Paulo, 581
S. Rafael, Lake, 285
Mount, 336
town, 401
S. Valentin, Mount, 285
Sandy Point, 293, 322
Santarem heights, 12
Santa river, 189
Santa Cruz, town, 262, 410
island, 55
river, 345, 356
Catalina Peak, 119
Catharina Island, 495
Clara Island, 294
Fe de Bogota, 141
Inez Island, 290
Isabel Peak, 119
Rosa, 108, 282, 320
Santiago, 317
del Estero, 397
Santos, 581
Sapao river, 527
Sarare river, 90
Sara-Sara Mountain, 191
Sara vita river, 125, 129
Sarmiento, Lake, 360
mountain, 277, 291
Savanilla, 126, 146
Sebastiao Island, 495
Senguerr river, 357
Serena, 314
Serra da Mantiqueira, 18, 498
Branca, 500
Chapada, 500
d'Amambay, 449
da Barborema, 529
da Canastra, 500
das Almas, 500
das Araras, 500
das Vertentes, 499, 500
da Tabatinga, 527
de Cantareira, 498
de Macaco, 499
de Piauhy, 500
de S. Geraldo, 499
de S. Martha, 501
de S. Sebastiao, 499
Diamantina, 501
do Brigadeiro, 499
do Chifre, 500
do Espinhaco, 498
do Grao Mogol, 500
do Mar, 18 496
dos Aimores, 497
do Pary, 501
Geral, 423, 497
Preta, 500
Sete Quedas Falls, 458
Shira river, 229
INDEX
GOO
Sierra de Mar, 3, 7(5, 79
Auca Mahinda, 330
Chamayji, 241
de Cordoba, 337
de Dona Aua, 278
de las Animas, 4"22
de los Moutes, 450
del Volcan, 338
de Mar, 3, 76, 79
de Mato, 80
de Merida, 3, 10, 77
de Perijaa, 117
de Santa Catalina, 235
de Santa Marta, 121
de S. Lnis, 337
de Victoria, 235
Guamepi, 81
Manaya, 241
Maraguaca, 80
Paearaima, 79
Parima, 79
Tandil, 337
Ventaua, 337
Simpson river, 271
Sinu river, 126
Siriueyris, 215
Slvyring Water, 292
Socompa Mountain, 277
Socorro, 145
Sogamoso liver, 125
Soledad, 109
Solimoens river, 195
Somno river, 527
Sorata, Mount, 238
town, 261
Soriano, 438
Sotara, Mount, 128
South America, contests with North
America, 1, 3, 7
central plains, 12
climate, 8, 38
discovery, exploration, 52 sq.
fauna, 25
flora, 20
inhabitants, 30 sq.
inland sea, 10, 14
iso-cultural zones, 43
languages, 34
orography, 15 sq.
relief, 10
rivers, table of, 15
subsidence, 20
South America, Table of Political
Divisions, 71
South Georgia Island, 596
Staten Island, 57, 270, 290, 338
Stewart Passage, 289
Suarez river, 145
Sucre, 259, 262, 264
Summa Paz Mountains, 116
Surubiu river, 526
Suyas, 555
Tabatinga, 197, 513
Table, comparative, of North and
South America, 7
of Amazonian affluents, 518
of Andean peaks, 17
of Bolivian departments, 235
of Bolivian towns, 259
of Brazilian States, 488
of Brazilian towns, 566
of Chilian provinces, 272
of Cliilian rivers, 295
of Chilian towns, 312
of Colombian departments, 114
of Colombian towns, 141
of departments of Peru, 187
of Mestizo terms, 64
of Paraguayan towns, 478
of Peruvian tow^ls, 216
of provinces of Argentina, 329
of provinces of Ecuador, 155
of South American races and
languages, 38
of South American rivers, 15
of South American States, 71
of towns of Argentina, 391
of Uruguayan departments, -120
of Uruguayan towns, 432
of Venezuelan State*, 75
of Venezuelan towns, 106
of volcanoes of Ecuador-, 161
Tacaloa, 149
Tacna, 187
Tacora Pealc, 274
Tacuari river, 454
Tados, 138
Tahami, 134
Talca, 320
Talcahuano Bay, 320
town, 320
Tama Peak, 117
Tambo Gobierno, 158
VOL. I
2 II
610
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Tambo river, 199
Tandil lulls, 10, 337
Tapajos river, 521
Tapana river, 519
Tapuyas, 46, 554
Tarapaca, 187, 229, 312
Tarma, 221
Tata Yactura Peak. 274
Taytao Peniusula, 285
Teffe river, 518
Tehuelches, 378
Telcho river, 295
Tequendania Falls, 125
Teiico river, 348
Therezina, 569
Three Brothers, Mount, 291
Tiahuanaco, 49, 51, 206
Tibucuary river, 455
Tierra del Fuego, 287
Tiete river, 459
Tigre river, 167
range, 279
Timotes, 100
Tinguirii'ica Peak, 283
Titicaca, Lake, 201, 209, 242
island, 210
Tocantlns river, 521
Tobago Island, 6
Tobas, 378, 380
Tocuyo, 108
Todos Santos Peak, 240
Tolima Peak, 119
Tome, 320
Tomolasta Peak, 337
Tongoy, 314
Tonquini, 222
Topo river, 167
Tortuga Island. 75
lYelew, 411
Tres Bocas, 346, 456
Trigo Mountain, 274
Triucheras river, 86, 107
Trinidad Island, 6, 7, 53, 495
river, 295
Trombetas river, 526
Tronador Mountain, 284
TrujUlo (Venezuela), 108
(Peru) 216
Tua Peak, 237
Tucabaca river, 455
Tucacas, 108
Tucuman, 396
Tucumbo hill, 451
Tumbez river, 229
Tunguragua Mountain, 162
Tiinja, 145
Tupi, 554
Tupinambaranas Island, 517
Tupinambas, 46
Tupungato Mountain, 17, 277, 27!
Turmero, 107
Tutupaca Mountain, 191
Tuyuneris, 215
Uberaba, Lake, 234
Ubinas Mountain, 191
Ucayali river, 196, 198
Uitotos, 138
Uribante river, 90
Urre-Lafquen, Lake, 351
Urubamba river, 198
Urubuijunga Falls, 458
Urucuty Mountains, 449
Uruguaj', 419 sq.
climate, flora, fauna, 424
departments, 420
hydrography, 422
inhabitants, 429
relief, 421
resources, 441
river, 442
topography, 431
Uspallata Pass, 401
Valdivia, 275, 322
Valencia, 106
lake, 86
Valparaiso, 314
Vauras, 556
Venezuela, 72 sq.
climate, 92
flora, fauna, 93
hydrography, 85
inhabitant.s, 98
llanos, 82
states of, 75
topograjDhy, 105
uplands, 76
Ventana hills, 10, 337
Ventuari river, 88
Verde river, 167, 234
Victoria Falls, 460, 461
to vn, 575
Vicuna, 314
INDEX
Gil
Viedma, S'>b
lake, 357
Vilcaniayo river. 198
Vilcanota, 198, 240
Vilelas, 378
Villa del Pilar, 348
de Mercedes, 402
Nueva, 402
Bella, 583
Conceptiou, 481
Eucaruacion, 481
Franca, 481
Hayes, 481
Rica, 480
Villarica Mountain, 284
lake, 297
Villegagnon Island, 577
Villeta, 481
Viscachas river, 359
Viscachillas Peak, 237
Volcanoes (Ecuador), 159
Wapisianas, 556
Wellington Island, 6, 286
W'ollaston Island, 290
Xarayes lagoon, 454
Xiugu river, 521
Yabricoya Peak, 274
Yahgans, 307
Yapacani river, 246
Yaracui river, 78
Yaros, 429
Yarumal Mountain, 120
Yaualapiti, 556
Yavary river, 234
Yeguas, 124
Yerbabuena, 313
Ypoa lagoon, 456, 461
Yuncas, 48, 206
Yungas zone, 241
Yungay, 217
Yuruuas, 555
Zaparos, 177
Zenta Mountains. 334
Zuinag river, 167
Zulia river, 85
THE END
Frintcdhy R. ><t R. Clakk, I,iMiTEn, Edinhurgh.
STANFORD'S
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL
Re-issue, Revised, and in great part Re-written, with New Illustrations and
Maps. Twelve Volumes, Large crown 8vo, cloth, price 15s. each.
"The new issue of ' Stanford's Compendium of Geography and Travel ' is a publica-
tion of great value, and contains, in convenient form, the latest geographical re.sults
of travel and research adequately treated. Not only is tlie information accurate, but
the form in which the work is produced is admirable, and English geography may be
jiroud of such a series. It is useful for educational purposes and for reference, and
pie isant to the general reader. — Atlienceum.
EUROPE.— Vol. I. The Countries of the Mainland (exclud-
ing the North- West). By George G. Chisholm, M. A., B.Sc. With
32 Maps and over 100 Illnstrations.
EUROPE. — Vol. II. In preparation.
ASIA. — Vol. I. Northern and Eastern Asia, Caucasia,
Russian Turkestan, Silieria, Chinese Empire, and Japan. By A. H.
Keane, F.R.G.S. AVith 8 Maps and 91 Tllustrations.
ASIA. — Vol. II. Southern and Westei'n Asia, Afghanistan,
India, Indo-China, ]\Ialay Peninsula, Turkey in Asia, Arabia, and
Persia. By A. H. Keane, F.R.G.S. With 7 xMaps and 89 Illustra-
tions.
AUSTRALASIA. — Vol. I. Australia and New Zealand. By
Alfred Russei, Wallace, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S. With numerous
Maps and Illustrations.
AUSTRALASIA. — Vol II. Malaysia and the Paeifie Archi-
pelagoes. By F. H. H. GuiLLEMARD, M. D., author of "The Cruise
ot tlie Marchcsa." With numerous Maps and Illustrations.
AFRICA. — Vol. L North Africa. By A. H. Keane,
F.R.G.S., Author of " Asia" in same series, "Eastern Geography,"
etc. With 9 Maps and 77 Illustrations.
AFRICA. — Vol. IL South Africa. By A. H. Keane,
l'\R.G.S., Author of "North Af'iica" in same series, "Eastern Geo-
graphy." etc. With 11 Maps and 92 Illustrations.
NORTH AMERICA.— Vol. I. Canada and Newfoundland.
By Samuel Edward Dawson, Litt.D. (Laval), F.R.S.C. With
18 Maps and 90 Illustrations.
NORTH AMERICA.— Vol IL The United States. By Henry
Gannet'I', Chief Geogra])her of the United States Geological Survey.
With 16 Maps and 7-2 Illustnitions.
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA.— Vol. I. South America.
By A. H. Keane, F.U.G.S. Edited bv Sir Clements Maukham,
K.C.B., F.R.S. With 13 Maps and 84 Illustrations.
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA.— Vol. II. Central America
and West Indies. By A. H. Keane, F.R.G.S. Edited by Sir
Clements Maukham, K.C.B., F.R.S. With Maps and numerous
Illustrations. [In the Press.
LONDON: EDWARD STANFORD. 12, 13, 14 Long Acre, W.C.
i CENTRAL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
f University of California, Saji Diego
1 DATE DUE
JUN 1 fi iq79
MAP 9. ^ 1979
w
i
A
A
M
m
a 39
UCSb ^^1
